A TERRIFIED shop owner today relived the moment an armed raider burst into the store and attacked her husband with a gun before firing a shot in the air.

The gunman entered Yasir Off Licence, Brownhill Avenue, Burnley at 9pm on Monday night and struck shop owner, Mehboob Hussain, 46, with the butt of the firearm several times.

The men struggled and the gunman fired a shot, which forced Sajida Parveen, 37, to take drastic action and throw bottles of the popular alcopop, WKD, at the offender .

Sajida said: "I was behind the counter and my husband was stocking the shelves when he burst in.

"The first thing he did was grab hold of Mehboob and start hitting him on the head with the end of the gun.

"I didn't know what to do because he had a gun. He was really hurting my husband so the only thing I could think of was to throw the glass bottles at him.

"Luckily it worked and he ran off before I could throw anymore. It was really terrifying.

"My children ran down from the flat upstairs when they heard the banging and shouting. They were very frightened and couldn't sleep all night because of it.

"Although he didn't get away with anything we have been left extremely shaken, but we are not going to let this stop us from getting on with our daily lives."

Mehboob was taken to Burnley General Hospital for several stitches to three wounds at the top of his head, after his children, Mabashir, 12, Yasar, ten and Maria, five, witnessed the fracas.

The couple managed to give a description of the offender. He is a white male in his 30s, 5ft 10ins, medium build, wearing a black baseball cap with a scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face.

Detective Sergeant Pete Simm, of Burnley CID, said they were not ruling out the possibility that the raid could be linked with the incident at Moviezone in nearby Parliament Street on Friday night.

He said: "We are making positive steps in relation to the Moviezone incident, the two incidents are very similar and we will be carrying out a detailed investigation of the scene.

"We have not yet established if the gun was an imitation cap gun or a real firearm. A shot was fired into the air but there wasn't a hole in the roof.

"A full examination of the scene is being conducted by forensic examiners.

"We are also going to be interviewing the owners and the children at length today. We are appealing to anybody who was in the area at the time, including local residents who may have heard or seen anything to come forward.

"If anybody knows the identity of the offender then I would urge them to call Burnley CID on 01282 472142 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111."