A CAR owner was dragged along the ground as he tried to stop his car being stolen from outside his house.

Steve Holt, 54, of Bury Road, Rawtenstall, was defrosting a Ford Focus and a BMW. When he went into the BMW to turn the ignition off, a man jumped into the Ford.

Mr Holt said: "I went to grab the door open as he started to reverse the car and he locked the door, but I kept hold of the door to try to stop the car being driven away.

"When he set off I was thrown out of the way and he drove a little way, did a handbrake turn to turn the car 180 degrees and then set off in the direction of Rawtenstall."

His son, David, had been having his breakfast before they were both set to take the BMW to the garage.

Mr Holt said: "The next thing my son saw was whan I came in the front door with blood on me.

"What really concerns me is the speed at which it happened. I had not left the vehicles. I was going from one to the other and had not gone back inside the house. I see lots of people doing this to defrost their cars."

He suffered bumps and bruises from the incident.

The black car is worth £13,000 and its registration number is Y286MNK. It was stolen on Tuesday at 8.15am.

Police are appealing for people not to leave their cars unattended while they are defrosting because there have been several similar incidents.