Shocked residents told of how hooded raiders fought desperately to drag away a cash machine from a convenience store in Wyke, Bradford.

They told how they were woken early yesterday (Wednesday) by loud bangs and the sound of smashing glass as a JCB digger was driven into the front of the McColl’s store in Griffe Road.

One resident, who did not want to be named, said: “I looked out the window and the forks on the front of a JCB had been put through the shop window. There was a white Transit van there and three lads but they couldn’t get the machine out from behind a bollard.

“I went outside and a man came out from the flat above the shop, and one of them started shouting that they had 15 minutes left to keep trying before the police came. I think they were trying to drag it into the back of the van.”

Another resident said she was awoken with a start at about 3.30am.

“I was asleep and I heard a noise, then glass smashing. They were ripping the shop front off with a JCB with long arms. I called the police, lots of other people had called in at the same time, and the shop’s alarm was going off, really loudly.

“They were dressed in black with hoods up. It’s a shock when you wake up to something like that outside. I thought I was seeing things.”

She said that she was concerned because the premises, under previous owners, had been raided before.

Although the suspects fled empty-handed, only four months ago, when the shop was run by the Co-operative group, a pair of masked robbers carrying scaffolding poles escaped with cash when they held up a female cashier.

In January last year, masked robbers wielding hammers forced staff to hand over money from the tills.

A spokesman for the Co-op confirmed yesterday that it had sold the store purely because of “poor trading conditions”.

No-one at McColl’s was available to comment.

Detective Inspector Steve Snow, of Bradford South CID, said he wanted to hear from further witnesses to the latest raid.

He said: “The actions of these suspects caused extensive damage to the premises and would have made a significant amount of noise.

“I would particularly appeal to anyone living nearby who heard noise in the early hours and may have looked out of their window and seen them, to contact us.”

Police said the van and the digger had been reported to have been travelling from the direction of Oakenshaw, Bradford, at 3.20am. The gang drove off in the white van after the raid abandoning the digger at the scene. It was later taken away by police for forensic examination.

Anyone with information about the suspects should contact Det Insp Snow at Bradford South CID on 0845 6060606 or call Crimestop-pers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.