A BRAVE grandad was forced to drag his three-year-old grandson out of a car as a gang of armed thieves threatened them both with a hammer and a bat.

Malcolm Osbourne pleaded with the thugs to let grandson Lee go free before they drove off, but he had to pull the toddler from the open back window of his silver Ford Mondeo.

Police are now hunting four Asian men after the car was later used in a violent street robbery in Keighley and a theft in Silsden.

Mr Osbourne, 56, from Otley was forced to take time off work because of stress and Lee, who lives with his grandparents on Caxton Road, is constantly reliving the incident.

His grandmother Jean said: "Malcolm was extremely shaken up and he found it impossible to go to work. It was such a traumatic experience and I think that Lee has been really affected by the whole thing, it is really upsetting.

"Lee keeps repeating all the foul language that these people were using because he doesn't realise what he is saying - it is an awful thing for a three-year-old to go through.

"Malcolm was terrified because he thought that these horrible people were going to escape with Lee in the back.

"You hear such terrible things and I was so shocked when I found out what had happened, anything could have happened."

Mr Osbourne is also the grandfather of Burley-in-Wharfedale youngster Matthew Downs, who suffers from a muscle wasting disease.

Matthew, seven, hit the headlines last year with a high-profile appeal to buy a specially adapted car for him. Buggies belonging to both Matthew and Lee were in the car when it was taken.

Mr Osbourne, who did not want to talk about the incident, told his wife that people should be aware of the danger of car-jacking. Mrs Osbourne said: "We both want people to know that this sort of thing can happen in quite quiet places as well as in the middle of the city."

The family has now gone on holiday to Florida, but Mrs Osbourne said that the decision to go had been a last minute thing because her husband was still distressed.

Mr Osbourne had been waiting for his wife to finish work at Belgarth Nursing Home in Ben Rhydding last Thursday, June 19 at 8.50pm when four men drew up beside them. Three surrounded the car, threatened Mr Osbourne with a bat and a hammer and demanded he got out.

He and Lee fled the car - registration P205 UVL - which was believed to have been used in mugging in Keighley at 10.15pm on Friday, June 13.

A 49-year-old woman was mugged on Fell Lane when two Asian men got out of what was believed to be the silver Mondeo. One of the thugs tried to grab her bag and when she struggled she was hit on the head with a baseball bat.

The pair were in their late teens to early 20s and one was described as having a broad nose.

At around 10am on Saturday the car was seen filling up at the Silsden Service Station in Keighley road before being driven away without payment being made. The car was then spotted that evening by police, but sped off before being stopped. It was later found abandoned in the Knowle Park area of Keighley.

l Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Constable Richard Nixon at Keighley CID on (01535) 617083.