Guard barred from Poundland after yelling at Muslim woman to take off her ‘hood’

Poundland has said that a security guard who was filmed behaving aggressively towards a customer in its branch on Portobello Road in Notting Hill, West London, is no longer welcome in its stores.

A video of a security guard yelling at a Muslim woman in a headscarf was posted to social media on October 25th, and has since gone viral.

In the video, the security guard is seen walking towards the customer and using foul language with a raised voice, while motioning in a threatening manner.

It is understood that the security guard lost his temper after telling the woman to remove her hood.

READ MORE: ‘Muslim women’s lives shouldn’t be threatened because of what we choose to wear’ says London fashion designer

The woman, however, does not appear to have any kind of hood attached to her clothing.

Rather, the woman is seen wearing a headscarf, a common practice for observantly Muslim women.

The woman then walks away, seemingly asking “is this man normal?” as other customers in the store come between them.

The security guard then pulls out his phone and starts confrontationally recording other customers who are filming the incident.

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Poundland was quick to deny that the security guard was one of their employees.

“This security guard isn’t a Poundland employee but we’ve been in touch with his employer to make our views clear,” the retail giant tweeted.

“His behaviour is unacceptable and he’s not welcome in any of our stores,” Poundland said.

Lodge Security, which has been contracted to provide security for Poundland stores across the UK, could not confirm whether the security guard was one of their employees.