Bradford jewel raiders hold five children at gunpoint

The men stormed into the home in Bradford after ringing the door bell and barging past the family in what is believed to have been a targeted attack.

Imran Hanif, his wife, his sister-in-law and five children aged three to five, were herded into a back room of the seven-bedroom house and threatened with their lives, while the armed raiders ransacked the property.

One of the robbers stood guard pointing the gun at the terrified family while his accomplices searched the rooms upstairs escaping with gold bangles, necklaces, rings and chains.

Mr Hanif, 25, said: “The children are still petrified. My youngest comes into my room crying every night because he doesn’t want to be alone. My brother’s two children are also still terrified by the ordeal. Nobody should have to go through this but especially not children. This type of thing could stay with them for life. They were only here for around 10 to 15 minutes but the trauma will last a lifetime.”

The father-of-three, who suffers from heart problems and diabetes, described how the children huddled together in a corner of the room, staring out of the window, so they did not have to look at the gunman.

“One of them had to be taken to hospital afterwards because they had such a high temperature because of the stress,” he said. “They would not look back into the room, they were that scared and it was awful that they are just in that room with you. They didn’t look at us or the gunman and we were all absolutely terrified. It has really affected us and we can’t sleep at night.

“They were threatening us and the man who had the gun was saying he would shoot us all if we made a sound.”

Mr Hanif, who worked in Morrisons until resigning due to ill heath, said he thought the family had been targeted.

“I don’t think they expected to find as much jewellery as they did as there have been two weddings in our family this year but they were definitely looking for jewellery,” he said. “My brother was asleep upstairs when this was all happening and I begged the gunman not to hurt him. We are so thankful no-one was hurt.”

Detective Inspector Mark Long, of Airedale and North Bradford CID, said a handgun was thought to have been brandished during the raid which took place last Saturday at around 3pm.

He said: “This was clearly a terrifying ordeal for the occupants of the house, not least for the young children who were present at the time.

“The way the men methodically searched the property leads us to believe this was a targeted attack and we would like to hear from anyone that may know who these individuals are. They may have also tried to sell on the jewellery locally and we would like to speak to anyone who may have been approached with an unusual number of items, under suspicious circumstances.”