POLICE are appealing for witnesses after two attempted cash-in-transit robberies on Monday afternoon.

The attempted robberies, at 2.30pm at the the BP petrol station in Keighley Road, Bingley, and at 4.30pm outside Tesco Express in Haworth Road, Bradford, are being investigated separately but police believe they could be linked.

In the Bingley incident a man armed with a hatchet tried to rob a G4S driver before fleeing with a second man in a red Peugeot 307.

They were both described as Asian, and the man who got out of the vehicle was wearing a dark grey hoody, dark bottoms, and blue Nike Air trainers, and also a balaclava.

The fled towards Bingley Main Street in the car, which was found about 20 minutes later on fire in Wilsden Old Road in Harden.

In the Bradford incident two men in balaclavas carrying weapons tried to rob a G4S van before fleeing with a third man in a green Volkswagen Golf towards the city centre.

The car was later found in Shaftsbury Avenue, Bradford, and the two men who got out of the vehicle were described as wearing dark clothing.

No one was injured in either of the incidents.

Detective Inspector Matthew Walker, of Bradford CID, said: "These are two serious incidents which will have understandably caused concern in the local area and we are doing everything we can to bring those responsible to justice.

"Both incidents happened at busy times of the day and I want to appeal directly to anyone who witnessed anything suspicious to get in touch."