A man was attacked in Rawdon when he tried to stop a gang of thieves from stealing his car.

The man sustained a head injury and concussion and was kept in hospital for a night after the attack in Layton Lane at 5pm on Saturday, February 1.

The man had driven home, parked his Audi in the drive and gone into the house when shortly afterwards one of the thieves entered the unlocked house and took the Audi keys.

The car owner realised what was happening when the car alarm started going off.

He ran outside to discover three men running away and his car being driven off.

The man chased the group and managed to catch one of the thieves, but the other two ran back to help their friend and hit the man over the head.

The driver returned in the stolen Audi and the group escaped.

Neighbourhood Watch Liaison Officer at Weetwood Police, Peter Krushniak said: "This is a particularly nasty incident and we are appealing for any witnesses to come forward.

"It is important that people lock their houses as well as their cars when they get home because thieves could be watching.

"We do not want to scare people, we just want people to be aware of what is going on and take sensible measures to prevent incidents like this."