POLICE are appealing for witnesses after two newsagents in the same street were targeted by armed robbers within the space of five days.

Two masked thugs struck at Lomas's Newsagents in Parr Lane, Unsworth, on Tuesday afternoon (Aug 15) and threatened the owner's son, David Lomas, with a kitchen knife. They fled empty handed.

The attack came just days after another newsagents, Eaton's, also in Parr Lane, was robbed.

Again two masked men brandishing large kitchen knives burst into the shop at 1.50pm on Friday (Aug 11).

They threatened a female assistant and a customer and then demanded cash from the till.

They took £70 and escaped in a black Ford Fiesta.

The shop assistant and customer were left shaken but unharmed.

David Lomas (27) was recovering from his ordeal at the newsagents this week. David, whose father, Dennis, has owned the business for 15 years, said: "Two lads came into the shop and one had a 12-inch kitchen knife.

"They were both masked, with scarves up to their eyes, and wore baseball caps. The one with the knife pointed it at me and said something.

"I don't remember what was said because I was too busy shouting back at them."

After David raised the alarm, he barricaded himself in the back of the property.

"After waiting for about 20 seconds I came back into the shop and they had gone," he said.

"It all happened so quickly I didn't have time to be frightened," he continued. "It didn't bother me at the time but afterwards I was a bit shaken up."

His father, Dennis (62), added: "This is the first time we have ever had a face-to face confrontation.

"We've only been broken into three times in 15 years and thought we were relatively safe here. As we are so far away from the main road, if anyone wanted to make a quick getaway they would have a long way to go before they reached their car."

David admitted that they would now be upgrading the shop's security system and installing CCTV cameras.

The attack happened at around 2.45pm on Tuesday. Any witnesses should contact Whitefield CID on 0161 856 8248.

Detective Sergeant Duncan Heywood of Bury's Operational Police Unit, said: "Friday's incident and the one that occurred this week are very similar although it is not clear whether the offenders are the same.

"We therefore would like to hear from anyone who witnessed the latest incident to come forward and help us with our inquiries."