WATCH: Chilling CCTV shows armed robber battering Telford shopkeeper with baseball bat

Dec 4 2011 by Mike Lockley, Sunday Mercury

THIS is the chilling moment an armed robber stormed a corner shop and brutally battered the owner around the head with a baseball bat.

The CCTV images show the crazed thug also threatening Muhammad Shabbir with an eight-inch knife during the terrifying 90 second raid.

Eventually, the bleeding dad-of-four managed to fight off the masked robber with a chair, as his terrified 16-year-old son, Atif, cowered in a backroom.

The raider then turned and fled empty-handed from Hadley’s Crescent Store in Telford, Shropshire.

Last night, Shabbir, 36, recalled the terrifying robbery, which took place two weeks ago.

He said: “I thought I was going to be killed. I was terrified at first and couldn’t do anything. I wanted to fight but he was waving the knife and I thought it might cut my throat.

‘‘He was also hitting my head and shoulders with the bat, there was blood everywhere.

‘‘He was screaming, ‘Open the till!’ and I was telling him to open it himself, but he couldn’t.

‘‘I have a panic button and the police came within minutes.”

Police are hunting the robber, who was also captured on CCTV running from the premises.

Plucky Shabbir was taken by ambulance to nearby Princess Royal Hospital, where his deep head injury was sealed. “I was very dizzy,’’ he said. ‘‘I still have pain in my shoulder.”

The robbery is the latest violent crime incident in the area in recent weeks, according to locals who claim they could be linked to a drugs gang.

But the thugs bit off more than they could chew when they confronted disabled grandmother Lindy Deans.