Detectives are investigating a robbery at a jewellery shop in Bradford where the suspects had to break out of the premises.

Police said three men wearing balaclavas targeted The Gold Shop, on Wakefield Road in Dudley Hill, at 11.42am yesterday.

Staff inside the shop, which specialises in watches and diamonds, are believed to have pressed an alarm which brought down metal shutters.

Allan Bradshaw, who owns a fish and chip shop next door, described how the raiders desperately tried to escape.

The 59-year-old said he heard a banging noise and thought a wheelie bin had been knocked over. He then discovered it was the men kicking the shutters from the inside.

He said: “I looked up the road and saw a car parked on the pavement with both doors open. He was pipping his horn.

“Then I saw a lad with his head halfway out of the shutter, with his mate trying to pull him out.”

Mr Bradshaw said the shutter was about one foot off the ground.

He added: “I locked my door and locked us inside. They drove off, so they must have got the lad out. I believe the car was found burnt out.”

Police said no-one was injured in the raid, but it is not yet known if anything was stolen.

Meanwhile, robbers struck at a Sainsbury’s Local store in Heaton on Wednesday night.

Police said the suspects, who were wearing balaclavas and believed to be wielding baseball bats, entered the shop on Keighley Road at 10.50pm.

They threatened staff, took money from the tills and made demands for property from the safe.

A police spokesman said: “The suspects, having failed to obtain any property from the safe, left the shop on foot towards Marriner’s Drive where it is believed they have used a red Ford Mondeo car to escape.”

Airedale and North Bradford CID are appealing for witnesses to contact them on 101, or the anonymous Crimestoppers line on 0800 555111, quoting reference number 13130212617.