A teenage thug who went berserk with a knife in a pizza restaurant has been locked up for five years.

Baran Khan is facing deportation back to Afghanistan at the end of his sentence in a young offenders’ institute.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the 18-year-old went into Tops Pizza in Lower Stone Street, Maidstone, started to wind up the Pakistani staff.

Khan made a reference to a friend being arrested and implied there was some kind of moral victory for Afghanistan over Pakistan, said prosecutor Alex Wilson.

Staff became angry and Irfan Ahmed came out from behind the counter and tried to get Khan out of the shop.

But Khan then took a knife from his pocket and held it in a stabbing motion. “He stabbed downwards towards Mr Ahmed,” said Mr Wilson. “The victim raised his left hand to fend off the blow and the knife cut into the back of his hand and wrist.

“He didn’t realise at that stage how bad it was. He was bleeding. He tried to push the defendant away. He received another cut to the back of his right hand and wrist.”

Khan was eventually bundled outside, where he tried to break a car window. By this time, the cut to the victim’s wrist was bleeding badly.

Mr Wilson said the incident was caught on CCTV. “The knife can be seen being held above the head and coming down towards the victim,” he said.

Mr Ahmed was left with a 7cm long cut, which went deep. There was nerve damage and he needed plastic surgery.

The prosecutor said Khan had exhausted his appeal rights against deportation.

Khan, of Wesley Place, Maidstone, admitted wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Ian Dear, defending, said the genesis of the violence was alcohol. Cultural differences between Afghanistanis and Pakistanis came into play.

“There was a lethal cocktail of alcohol and anger,” he said.

Mr Dear said Khan had been in the UK for a year. His father was killed in fighting in Afghanistan and his mother had moved to Iran.

“It is regrettable that in the country from which he comes, there is a more acceptable level of violence,” said Mr Dear.

“Here, things are dealt with much more robustly. He accepts now that the English way of life is not for him.”