A BLACKBURN jeweller and his wife have been found dead after a raid on their shop in Preston town centre.

Mohammed "Tony" Karim, 52, and his wife Bilquis, 48, of Whalley Old Road, Little Harwood, are believed to have been the victims of an attempted robbery at the Tony's Jewellers business in Church Street.

Police are now examining possible links with other robberies across Lancashire, including a simialr raid in Preston earlier this month and a raid at the Arthur Barrie's jewellers in Rawtenstall a fortnight ago. The same black Subaru vehicle was used in both raids.

The alarm was raised around 5pm yesterdaywhen the couple failed to pick up their grandchildren from school in Blackburn.

When they didn't answer the door their sons Shafique and Shabir forced their way into the building where they discovered the bodies of their mother and father in a room at the rear of the shop. Both had horrific injuries and appeared to have been attacked with a knife or cosh but police still do not know what the murder weapon was.

It is unclear whether any jewellery had been stolen.

Lila O'Hagan, who was in the area at the time, said: "We could hear a lot of screaming and then someone started shouting that the shop had been robbed.

"Someone said the son has broken into the shop and when he got inside he had found his mother and father lying dead on the floor." The busy town centre street was still sealed off early today and police were carrying out forensic tests at the scene. Around 40 officers were working on the case and carrying out door to door inquiries in the area.

Det Chief Insp Mike Arnold said: "We are not clear what the motive for this attack was. There was still a substantial amount of jewellery in the shop but it is possible that is was a robbery that went very tragically wrong."

Mr and Mrs Karim have two sons, three daughters and four grandchildren and have run the Preston jewellers for many years.

Mr Karim is believed to run a second shop in Blackburn.

Mukhtar Khan, who owns a corner shop close to the couple's home, said: "Everybody is in complete shock and the family are still trying to find out exactly what happened.

"Mr Karim and his wife are highly respected members of the community and he is well known in the Little Harwood area.

"They are good people and I can not believe that this has happened to them."

The family are deeply distressed and in mourning."

A nephew of the dead couple answered the door of the family home. He said the family were in shock.

Early today, another family member at the house said it was to soon to talk about what had happened.

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