SWNS
The father reveals how a masked gang took his daughters hostage and ransacked his home
A terrified father has told how four masked men took his young daughters hostage at knifepoint and threatened to “kill” his son before ransacking his home. Mohammed Ali, 39, was woken by his girls, aged seven and 12, “screaming in panic” as thieves burst through his front door with machetes, a meat cleaver and a brick. The lorry driver first saw two of the intruders on the stairs of his four-bed terraced house while another held a knife to his daughters’ throats in their living room. And when his son came out of his room upstairs a few seconds later, one of the heated men yelled, “Kill him! Kill him!” before moving on to the 18-year-old. Mohammed said he pushed the boy back into his bedroom and ran to a bathroom, where they took refuge as the robbers pounded on the doors with machetes. After five minutes, the thugs finally fled the property and stole his white Seat Leon car from his driveway when they found his keys. Mohammed, who did not know why his home was targeted, said the incident had left him “broken”, adding that he felt he had “failed” his family. He said: “My daughter said one of them had a knife and was saying, ‘It’s all your dad’s fault, shut up’ and was putting a knife to his neck. “They all had gloves and everything, but you could see their eyes through the balaclava, and their voice, I could never forget it. “I haven’t slept since. My family is broken. My kids wouldn’t come home. “Yesterday was my daughter’s birthday and literally everything is messed up and I don’t know what to do or what to say- them. I feel like I failed them.” Mohammed said he had gone to bed at 9.30pm on May 9, leaving his youngest son, five, and two daughters watching TV at their home in Oldham, Grtr. Manchester. His make-up artist wife Michelle Dunkley, 40, had forgotten her keys when she left the house for work in the evening, so she opened the door before going upstairs. But at 11pm, she heard one of her daughters utter a high-pitched scream before finding two masked men on the stairs with metre-long machetes. He said: “It wasn’t a scream where kids were fighting. This was a scream of panic, a scream of concern. As a parent I knew this was not normal. “As I was trying to get down the stairs, I was confronted by three guys in balaclavas. Two were on the stairs, one at the bottom and one had my kids downstairs. “I started yelling, ‘I’m out! Get out!’ They started insulting me. My son had the room next to the stairs, and when he came out they told him: “Kill him! kill him!” “I pushed him into his room and closed the door, and they started up the stairs. I went to the bathroom, which was right behind me. “He was just shouting, ‘Make sure they don’t get to you!'” “They started hacking at the doors with the machetes, and while they were hacking at him, the third man was ransacking my house.” Mohammed said it was a terrifying five minutes keeping the door closed, hoping the men wouldn’t break in. And when he finally realized they had gone down the stairs, he heard his car’s engine rev and realized they were trying to steal his car. add: “I was still half asleep. I was dazed and panicked and didn’t know if my son or my other children had been brought down. “Once my car started and they drove off, I chased after and went in and saw that my kids were okay.” Mohammed said her children were fortunately unharmed despite their trauma, and besides her vehicle, the men only took a box of her daughter’s miniature dolls. But after sharing footage of the robbery on social media, he said another family in nearby Rochdale reported being attacked by the same gang just an hour later. The distraught father said he had reported the attack to Greater Manchester Police but did not think they were taking the incident seriously. He said: “It’s absolutely disgraceful. I put it up with the police. But it’s like they’re not bothered. They’ll only take action when someone is seriously injured or dead, but I don’t want that on my conscience.” Greater Manchester Police has been approached for comment.
