A YOUNG woman says she no longer feels safe in her own home after thugs smashed the rear windscreen of her father's car in a seemingly unprovoked attack.

Anneqa Hussain, 20, of Shay Fold, in Heaton, was at home with her family when she noticed two men dressed in dark clothing stood near their cars during the early hours of Sunday morning, January 13.

The terrified health care assistant was on the phone to her friend when she first saw the men at 4am and alerted her father to the alarming sight.

He banged on the window and scared the men off.

Later the same day, however, Miss Hussain said she heard the sound of smashing glass and when the family rushed outside, they discovered her father's VW Golf had been vandalised.

She told the Telegraph & Argus: "The blinds were open in my bedroom and I was looking out the window and thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

"I thought it was a cat and carried on speaking, but when I shut my window I heard someone walking in the garden.

"His back was to me, but he turned round and just stared at me.

"He was wearing a big black coat.

"When my dad banged on the window he saw one man at the end of the street and one in the garden.

"Later on between 8pm and 8.20pm I was in my room and I heard my dad's car being smashed up.

"My brother and brother-in-law ran out to see if they could see them, but we think they ran towards Shay Drive or onto Salem Field."

The window of the car was shattered with a brick and glass was sprayed all over the back seats.

As the family were searching the nearby streets, Miss Hussain claims she saw two men dressed in jeans and T-shirts driving away from the scene in an Audi.

She added: "Nothing like this has ever happened to us before.

"There are so many cars in the street, but they have targeted us.

"They smashed the back of my dad's car's window and I don't understand why anyone would do this.

"We don't want these people to get away with it.

Miss Hussain said she believed two men came to the home in the early hours of Sunday morning, but claims four men aged between 19 and 23 carried out the vandalism.

"I don't feel safe at home and I have trouble sleeping.

"If I do go to sleep it is in my mum's bed because I don't want to be alone.

"I work 12 hour shifts at a hospital and when I come home I can't get to sleep.

"I would rather be at work than at home.

"I can't get the image out of my head of him staring at me."