Terrified dad says masked machete gang took his daughters hostage and threatened to kill son during break-in

A terrified dad says four masked men took his young daughters hostage with knives and threatened to “kill” his son, during a violent break-in.

Mohammed Ali, 39, said he woke to “panicked screams” from his daughters, aged seven and 12, as robbers burst through the front door of his house, armed with machetes, a meat cleaver and a brick.

Mr Ali said he'd gone to bed at around 9.30pm last Tuesday (9 May), leaving his youngest son, who is five, and two daughters watching TV. His wife had forgotten her keys when she left the house for work in the evening, he said, so he had unlocked the door before heading upstairs.

But at 11pm, he heard one of his daughters scream before finding two masked men on the stairs, holding metre-long machetes. “It wasn’t a scream where the kids were fighting. This was a panicked scream, a worried scream. I knew as a parent this was not normal," he said.

“As I was trying to get down the stairs, I was faced by three guys in balaclavas. Two were on the stairs, one at the bottom, and one had my kids downstairs." The truck driver said one of them held a knife against his daughters’ throats in their living room.

When his son emerged from his upstairs bedroom seconds later, one of the men yelled “Kill him! Kill him!” before advancing towards the 18-year-old, he said.

Mr Ali said he pushed his son back into his bedroom, before taking refuge in a bathroom - while the men hacked at the doors with their machetes. After five minutes, they fled the property, stealing his white Seat Leon car from the driveway.

He said he did not know why his home was targeted, but that he had been left “broken” by the incident - adding he felt like he had “failed” his family.

“My daughter said one of them had a knife and he was saying, ‘It’s all your dad’s fault,'" Mr Ali said. "They all had gloves and everything, but you could see their eyes through the balaclava – and their voice, I could never forget it."

He said he has not been able to sleep since the home invasion. "My family is broken. My kids wouldn’t come home... It was my daughter’s birthday yesterday, and literally everything is spoiled and I don’t know what to do or what to say to them.”

Mohammed said his children were thankfully unharmed despite their trauma, and besides his vehicle, the men only took a box of his daughter's miniature dolls. But after he shared footage of the robbery on social media, he said another family in nearby Rochdale reported the same gang had attacked them just an hour later.

A spokesperson from Greater Manchester Police confirmed officers had attended an address in Oldham following an aggravated burglary. They said police had responded to a call for assistance at 11.15pm on 9 May, after four men entered a property and threatened the occupants with bladed weapons before stealing a car.

Police were now appealing for anyone to come forward who may have witnessed the incident or heard something from around that time. Detective Inspector Andrew Fink, of Greater Manchester Police’s Oldham Division, called the attack “shocking” and said his officers were determined to track down the suspects.

“We have zero tolerance for these sort of shocking acts and we are determined to bring those responsible for this crime to justice," he said. "Our officers are working hard to establish all leads and information, and any information that the public may have would be of great assistance to their enquiries."

Fink urged anyone with CCTV, dashcam, or doorbell footage to please get in touch. "No matter how small you think the information is, it could be of great use for the investigation."