Tributes paid to London newsagent

His father Lalit, 84, who set up their newspaper kiosk outside a North London station in the 1980s, died of the virus a few days earlier, reports suggest.

Bhatt became a local hero for defending his kiosk with a baseball bat when a drunk attacked it.

Prime minister Boris Johnson, who was a regular customer of Bhatt, told The Mail on Sunday: “I am so sorry to hear about Harendra – a cheery independent newsagent who rightly defended his shop against thugs many years ago. My thoughts are with all his family and friends.”

Comedian and broadcaster Clive Anderson and Radio 4 Today presenter Nick Robinson have also paid tribute.

Anderson said: “He was incredibly forthright and had a huge amount of knowledge of what was going on in the world. He was always very interested in what was going on in people’s lives, too, and had an uncanny ability to know what paper or magazine I was coming in to buy.”

Robinson added: “He was a super guy and it is a really sad loss that he is gone.”