DRINKERS were forced to the floor at gunpoint during a terrifying raid on a pub.

And the landlord of Prestwich's Park Hotel, Tony Frain, had a knife held to his head as he was frogmarched to his office and forced to open the safe.

A total of £3,000 in cash together with wallets, jewellery, and mobile phones belonging to the customers, were taken in the Thursday night (Feb 21) robbery.

Describing the five minute ordeal, Mr Frain said three masked men burst into the Lowther Road pub at 9.45pm. Two had shotguns while the third man produced a knife.

He said: "There was around ten customers, men and women, sitting drinking when they came in through a side door.

"The men with shotguns ordered the customers to get down on the floor and they were held at gunpoint throughout.

"It all happened so quickly. The customers were in shock when they burst in."

Mr Frain, who has only been running the pub for three months, was approached by the third raider and ordered at knifepoint to open the safe.

The father continued: "He held a knife to my head and I was frogmarched upstairs to the safe.

"All I could think about were my children who were asleep upstairs."

After taking the cash from the safe and the customers' property, one of the robbers tried unsuccessfully to take money from the till. He couldn't open the cash drawer but stole the entire till.

The men escaped in a white Vauxhall Cavalier.