An innocent family, including four children, were robbed and assaulted in their home in a terrifying case of mistaken identity.

Eight members of a family were attacked after a gang of men burst into their home, looking for drugs.

They punched three of the adults, causing minor injuries, and fled with cash and jewellery after realising they had got the wrong house.

The incident, at a house in Miller’s Croft, Birstall, happened at 9.30pm last Wednesday, and police released information yesterday.

The family – a couple aged 47 and 48, their 29-year-old daughter, her four children aged between four and 13, and her 31-year-old partner – were all in the house when a man, purporting to be delivering takeaway pizzas, knocked on the door.

The older woman answered and told the man no food had been ordered. A second suspect then appeared, forced the door open and threw her to the ground. Three other men entered the house and began searching rooms, asking the occupants for drugs.

As the suspects began to realise that they were in the wrong house they left, taking some jewellery and cash with them. During the robbery the 47-year-old woman and the two men were punched.

The younger woman, and the children, were not harmed, though she was taken to hospital for a check up because she was pregnant.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “This was a nasty incident and a frightening ordeal for a family to have to go through in their own home. They were completely innocent victims and it was a case of mistaken identity.”

Four of the suspects were black men and the other, who claimed to be the pizza delivery driver, was Asian. He was in his early 30s, about 5ft 5in tall, and slim.

The man who forced the door was about 6ft tall, slim, in his early 20s and wore a grey hooded top. The other suspects were all in their early 20s and more than 6ft tall.

Anyone with information, is asked to contact Detective Constable Adrian Lever, of Dewsbury CID, on 101, or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.