thieves have shocked Haworth shopkeepers by ram-raiding two stores in the village in the last four months.

Police have not linked the two incidents but shopkeepers have been left reeling by such violent crimes in the small village.

The front of the Haworth Spar store was demolished when raiders drove a Nissan car through the glass shop front. The brazen thieves removed a security bollard from outside the shop which had been installed specifically to prevent ram-raiding.

The thieves escaped in a second car, believed to be a Ford Sierra, after filling two bin liners with tobacco and alcohol.

Police have few details about the raiders and describe them as four large men, all clothed in black, with black woollen hats and masks.

The attack on Monday of last week on the Spar shop is the third the convenience store has been subjected to since it opened almost exactly a year ago.

In August, last year, thieves stole cigarettes and alcohol after smashing a shop front window with a large stone block. Three months later thieves used a sledge hammer to smash through toughened glass. Cigarettes and alcohol were again targeted in the theft.

Area manager Brain Turner refused to comment but the manager of the store said: "It's not really what you expect when you are in Haworth."

Ram-raiders struck earlier this year in Haworth in an attack on the Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop, close to the village police station.

This first attack happened at around 2.40am on Valentine's Day, when thieves smashed through the front door and stole £2,000 worth of clothing.

The raid in February was the second ram-raid attack on the Woollen Mill shop.

Mike Hutchinson, of Haworth Traders, says: "I think these violent crimes are happening because many town centres are getting things like CCTV. The thieves are then targeting the places that haven't got these security measures."

Haworth was also the scene of a terrifying armed raid on the Villette Coffee House, in Main Street, in March. The assailant, who was armed with a pistol, burst into the shop after it had closed for business on Sunday, March 5, and stole over £700.

Anyone with information about the raids should call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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