Gang attacks man with knife during raid

A 39-year-old man told today how he was slashed with a knife during a robbery by a gang at his remote cottage.

George Burke was attacked in his home near Fintona, Co Tyrone, around midnight last night while his 11-year-old son slept in a bedroom.

Mr Burke said he had answered his front door after hearing a woman screaming.

He was pushed on to the floor as the gang of two men and a woman ransacked the cottage.

“My 11-year-old son was asleep and the woman shouted ’There’s a child in the house’.

“They took a cash box containing a chequebook and other personal items.

“They also made off with a wallet containing cash of between £150 (€214) to £200 (€286) and a watch of sentimental value.

“As they were leaving, I made a grab for the girl, but unfortunately she slipped through my fingers and one of the men came back with a knife.

“I’m very, very shaky after this attack. The house is a complete shambles.

“Clothes have been thrown on the bedroom floor. They’re all over the place and they ripped the telephone from the wall.”

Mr Burke said he had suffered bruising to the right eye and ribs after being punched to the floor.

He was also slashed several times on the arm.

The victim paid tribute to police and ambulance staff, as well as doctors and nurses at the Tyrone County Hospital.

He said he did not expect to have to go through such an ordeal and described the area in which he lives on the Corrashesk Road near Fintona as a “quiet, nice area”.

The victim said he did not know whether the incident would force him to leave.

“I have to make my mind up,” he said.

It is understood the gang had Republic of Ireland accents.

The woman was described as being in her late teens, around five-foot-two-inches tall, with blonde hair and was wearing denim.

One of the men was in his 20s or 30s, approximately five-foot-eight and was wearing jeans and a fleece.

The other man was believed to have been smaller, with a shaven head, was in his late teens and had a scar above the right eye. He also had a Celtic cross tattoo on his left forearm.

Police in Omagh investigating the incident have asked members of the public to assist them.

Meanwhile in East Belfast a pensioner was recovering after she was assaulted during an attempted robbery at her home.

The 75-year-old woman was in her house in Clara Park with her 85-year-old disabled husband, when they heard a noise in the hallway.

When she went to check the noise, she was confronted by a masked man who pinned her to the floor and threatened her.

An accomplice knocked at the front door which the masked man opened. They fled in a navy-coloured blue car.

Police in East Belfast said the couple were deeply shocked and later discovered that part of the house upstairs had been ransacked.

They urged people “to be vigilant and look after their elderly neighbours”.

Officers asked the public to contact police if they saw or heard anything suspicious – no matter how small it appeared to be.