A woman had to watch as a gang of at least 30 men launched a terrifying attack on her brother with baseball bats and a knife, the Old Bailey heard last week.

Sheila Nazir was driving past Fircroft Road, Tooting, on April 20 last year when the gang ambushed a rival group whose members included her younger brother Hamad Bhatti.

Two of his friends - brothers Mohammed, 24, and Hayder Ali, 25, - were killed during the fight, which involved knives, machetes, bricks, hammers, bats and even a wooden board used to advertise the nearby Spice Village restaurant.

The killers - said to include the eight men now standing trial - attacked the brothers as they were driving through Tooting in a white transit van.

Hamad Bhatti recruited the Ali brothers after he was threatened by defendants Hassan, 18, and Sultan Mir, 24, prosecutors claimed.

Mrs Nazir told the court she happened to be driving back home from the cinema when she drove passed a group of "30 or more" men aged 17 to 40 massing near the junction of Fircroft Road and Upper Tooting Road.

She said Hassan Mir recognised her and pointed her out to the others while another man wearing traditional Muslim dress brandished a knife at her.

Mrs Nazir said: "I think he was trying to scare me because he showed me the blade of the knife. It was as big as his hand.

"He said: I'm going to get your brother with this'."

Moments later Hamad, the Ali brothers and eight other friends drove past in the white van and the Mir group launched "a frenzied attack", it is said.

Witness Muhammed Alladee told the court he watched the group use baseball bats, a shovel and even an advertising board to smash the van's windscreen.

The Ali brothers, account manager Mohammed, of Tyneham Road in Battersea, and recruitment consultant Hayder, of Elborough Street in Southfields, were dragged from the van, stabbed and left for dead in Fircroft Road and both later died in St George's Hospital.

Eight men charged over the incident are appearing in this trial and five others are due to stand trial later this year, the jury were told.

One suspect, Imran Aslam, is still wanted by the police and is believed to be on the run in Pakistan.

Imran Ali, 20, of Wilson Avenue, Mitcham; Noor Kayani, 22, from Gatton Road, Tooting; Imran Hussain, 23, of Selkirk Road, Tooting; Kashif Khan, 20, of Hebdon Road, Tooting; Aazam Butt, 20, of Arthur House, Halford Road, Fulham; Hassan Mir, 18, Sultan Mir, 24, both of no fixed address, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named all deny two counts of murder and one charge of conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm with intent.

The trial continues.