An 81-year-old man had a gun pointed to his head in the latest of a series of gold jewellery robberies by organised gangs at family homes in Bradford.

Police last night revealed there have been 41 such raids since June in the Bradford South division alone.

The situation has prompted the newly-appointed Police and Crime Comissioner Mark Burns-Williamson to discuss the issue with senior officers in the division.

And police have urged people with significant amounts of jewellery in their homes to consider their security arrangements.

In the latest raid masked raiders held a gun to the head of Mohammed Amin, 81, before ransacking his home in Clayton Road, Lidget Green, of £45,000 of sentimental gold jewellery.

The robbers, wearing balaclavas and brandishing shotguns, had herded Mr Amin and his son, Mohammed Nazir, 52, into a front room of the house which is next to a factory and a busy bus stop. They took rings, bracelets, jewellery, passports and phones.

It came only weeks after a similar raid in Oakleigh Road, Clayton, when armed robbers stole £60,000 of jewellery and herded young children into a front room while they ransacked the house.

Mr Amin’s grandaughter, Nazma Nazir, who also lives in the house with her mother and brother, said she is too scared to be home alone and called on the police to do more.

The raiders broke in at 12.15pm last Wednesday when Miss Nazir’s mother had just gone out for her thrice-weekly dialysis.

They escaped through an alleyway 30 minutes later, after taking two mobile phones and the landline to stop the family calling the police.

Miss Nazir, a 25-year-old social worker, said: “My grandad has just come out of hospital and they both had guns held to their heads.

“I got married three years ago and they have taken all my jewellery. My mum’s jewellery has also gone.

“The community is so shocked and really, really scared.

“My grandad isn’t sleeping and we are all really stressed. We are really shocked. There are elderly people living on their own who wouldn’t know what to do and my main concern is to make sure everyone feels safe.”

Mr Burns-Williamson said that he met divisional commanders in Bradford who had highlighted the issue to him.

He said: “It is an issue. There is no doubt gangs are targeting people and plans are in place to tackle this.”

Councillor Michael Walls, (Con, Queensbury), who is on the Police and Crime Panel, which scrutinises the work of the PCC, said: “This seems to be a regular occurrence with the theft of Asian gold and it is amazing to think somebody has that kind of value of gold in their house and they need to put it somewhere else like a safety deposit box.”

Councillor Abdul Jabar (Lab, Great Horton), said that he was appalled and urged the police to work more closely with goldsmiths to trace stolen gold.

“We need specialists looking at this because it is very, very scary for this to happen to a man in his 80s in the middle of the day on a main road,” he said.

Councillor Imran Hussain, the deputy leader of Bradford Council, who also sits on the PCC Panel, said he would be raising the matter with Mr Burns-Williamson and called the crimes “horrific”.

“People are keeping large amounts of gold at home and clearly this is something they need to reconsider because they could be at risk,” he said.