Police told Streatham cafe to evacuate after terror attack and this woman asked for 'half an hour' to finish eating

A bizarre video captured in the wake of the Streatham terror attack yesterday afternoon has gone viral.

The footage shows a policeman entering the establishment saying:

Sorry guys, you're going to have to close, we've got to evacuate I'm afraid. Everyone's going to have to go.

There's been a terrorist incident down there, we're closing everything down. If you want to stay safe you'll listen to me.

Obviously being interrupted in the middle of the working day is not ideal, but given the circumstances the response seems... unusual. A woman who can be heard in the background and presumably works at the cafe says:

Just give us half an hour because people have to eat.

At this point the police officer understandably loses patience, saying:

Madam, a terrorist has been shot dead just down there, they've got a possible IED vest, which is a bomb. If you want to try and stay open for half an hour and you want to put these lives in danger, then be my guest.

The video was tweeted by Claire Stevenson, who appears to have been eating in the cafe at the time.

People have been quick to praise the police officer for his conduct under extremely taxing circumstances.

While lots of people have criticised the woman's response, others have pointed out that people do often respond in different ways when faced with situations so out of the norm that it's hard to immediately know how to react.

Others made the point that she may have feared losing her job if she closed the cafe and it turned out not to be a serious incident.

The incident resulted in the stabbing of two people before the terrorist was shot by police.

MORE:How you can help following the 'terror incident' in Streatham