Detectives will make a televised appeal for help in tracing armed robbers who raided a Bradford bank and are believed to have tried to rob another.

Cash was stolen from the Yorkshire Bank in Leeds Road, Laisterdyke, on Friday, January 29, when a three-strong gang struck.

Two men threatened staff with hammers, assaulting one, before fleeing in a grey Toyota Avensis later found on fire nearby.

Three men and a woman were arrested but they are no longer suspects.

The raid is being linked with a robbery six days later at the Halifax bank in Wharf Street, Sowerby Bridge.

Two men entered the bank carrying a sledgehammer and after a scuffle with security staff, they made off empty-handed in a green BMW car.

Both incidents will be highlighted on BBC1’s Crimewatch programme on Monday at 9pm.

Detective Inspector Steve Snow, head of regional operations for Yorkshire and the Humber, said it was possible that the raids were linked.

He said: “Both of these robberies had similarities. They targeted banks at the times when money was being delivered, the suspects carried hammers and made threats against the staff and they happened within days of each other.”

He said the robbers appeared organised and they need to be stopped.

Anyone who knows anything about the Bradford robbery which happened shortly after 10am on Friday, January 29, or the Sowerby Bridge raid at 8pm on Thursday, February 4, should contact Bradford South CID via 0845 6060606 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.