A PUB landlord was beaten almost unconscious with a baseball bat in a savage attack by masked robbers.

Colin Burbidge, who runs the St Margaret's Tavern in Bury Old Road, Prestwich, needed 12 stitches in a head wound after three raiders burst in on Sunday night (May 27).

He was with three friends just after midnight when the thugs, armed with baseball bats and a large spanner, barged in.

The gang screamed at the terrified group to show them to the safe but then started lashing out.

Mr Burbidge said: "It all happened very quickly. We were stood at the end of the bar chatting when the men burst in. They shouted at us to open the safe but then started to hit out indiscriminately." Mr Burbidge (62), whose wife and 19-year-old daughter were sleeping upstairs at the time, said he was hit on the back of the head and also suffered blows to the rest of his body.

One of his friends also needed hospital treatment for a gash on his head caused by the spanner. Another was battered across the nose.

"I don't remember being unconscious but I must have been knocked out as there are complete gaps in my memory," said Mr Burbidge. "My mate said there were two of them attacking me at one point."

Mr Burbidge, who has been at the pub for 12 years, pushed his assailant away and made a run for the living quarters.

He said: "I got behind the door that leads to where we live upstairs and shouted to my wife to call the police. I wedged my foot behind the door but they tried smashing it down."

A number of passers-by heard the commotion and contacted the police on mobile phones and the thugs finally left the pub empty-handed.

Recovering at home this week, Mr Burbidge said: "I've seen fights before and we have been burgled but nothing like this. I won't let it bother me. I stopped worrying about things like this a long time ago."

DC Chris Jameson, of Whitefield CID, said: "The landlord was lucky not to have been more seriously injured."

He added that the group might have been drinking in the pub earlier on in the evening and said the police would like to hear from anyone who was seen acting suspiciously in or around the pub prior to the attack on Sunday evening.

The men were aged between 18 and 25 with local accents and one of them wore a dark blue or black combat jumper with elbow patches.

Anyone with information should contact DS Barker at Whitefield CID on 856 8248 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.