A 15-year-old girl said she feared she was going to die after masked burglars held her family at knife-point.

Nasma Ghani said she was suffering sleepless nights after two men burst into her home in Aberdeen Place, Lidget Green, Bradford, as her 42-year-old father Mohammed locked up.

Nasma was upstairs watching television with her younger sister and two younger brothers while her mother Zohra, 41, slept in another room on the same floor.

They were unaware of the drama unfolding downstairs.

The burglars, who had stockings over their heads and wore surgical rubber gloves, held a knife to Mr Ghani's neck and forced him to his knees in a back room demanding he hand over some cash.

He tried to struggle free but the men dragged him upstairs and cornered the rest of Nasma's family in a front bedroom.

Nasma said: "They came into the room and shouted at us to get on our knees. At first they said they wouldn't hurt us but then they said they'd kill me if I didn't tell them where the money was.

"I really thought I was going to die. I was too scared to cry, I didn't know what they were going to do.

"My younger sister was screaming and crying and my brothers were scared stiff - they just stared at these men. We had some money in the house so I told them where to find it.

"Then they asked us for gold. I was pleading with them that there wasn't any but they wouldn't believe us."

Unbeknown to the robbers Nasma's older sister Nabeela, 18, had heard the men when they first came in and sneaked out of the front door to get her uncle who lived nearby.

Former textile mill worker Mr Ghani, who is now on sickness benefit, said the sight of his brother-in-law Shabbir Ahmed startled the burglars who had returned downstairs.

Mr Ghani said "Shabbir was stood in the front door and they said 'move and we'll put this knife through your stomach'. He went to get more help but they'd run off through the back door when he got back.

"When they grabbed me in the kitchen I thought it was a joke but I soon realised it wasn't. Nasma is struggling to sleep and the whole family is still very shaken. I don't know what they would have done if my brother-in-law had not arrived."

One of the men is described as of Asian appearance, aged between 20 and 25, 5ft 8in to 6ft tall, with short black hair, and was wearing dark clothing.

His accomplice is described as male, of mixed race, 5ft 6ins tall, aged about 20, of stocky build, and also wore black clothing.

Detectives at Toller Lane CID are appealing for witnesses after the raid in the early hours of last Friday. Call 01274 376885.

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