Harry Styles: I ran into traffic to escape robbers in Valentine's Day mugging

Harry Styles has revealed he ran into moving traffic to protect his phone from a knife-wielding gang.

The One Direction star has opened up about being mugged on Valentine’s Day, when he was surrounded by a gang and threatened him with a knife to unlock his phone and hand it over.

Styles told US radio DJ Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show: “I was walking home from a friend’s house and I see this group of guys with their hoods up and faces covered. I crossed the street and then they crossed the street, and I’m like, ‘Oh for f**k sake, I think I’m about to get robbed.’”

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The Falling singer admitted he was terrified when the group approached him, recalling: “There’s nobody around and my heart’s pounding.”

Styles said the gang asked him if he wanted drugs and when he said no, they demanded to know what he had to give them.

The former boyband star revealed: “I had some cash in my pocket, so I pull it out and he takes it from me. And I had my headphone jack sticking out of my pocket and he’s like, ‘What’s that plugged into?’

“So I pull out my phone and I’m thinking, ‘OK this is annoying but I’ll wipe it and get a new phone’. And then the guy’s like, ‘Unlock your phone,’ and the other one pulls his shirt up and he’s got a knife sticking in his pants, and I was like, ‘S**t.’”

Styles – whose celebrity friends include Taylor Swift, Adele, Kendall Jenner and his 1D bandmates – risked his own safety to protect the contents of his phone.

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He revealed: “I thought about throwing it in the pond... then I thought, ‘I don’t want to p**s them off,’ There were, like, two cars coming, and I just sprinted and ran. I ran into the road and I tried to stop a car and obviously, mad man runs into the road, you won’t let them into your car.”

The singer then ran away in the direction of his home and the muggers eventually stopped following him. he said: “I guess because they had some cash and stuff they ended up just turning around.”

Styles, 26, was approached and threatened in Hampstead, north London, late at night on Friday, 14 February.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed in a statement: “It was reported that a man in his 20s was approached by another man and threatened him with a knife. The victim was not injured however, cash was taken from him.”