FOUR men are being hunted by police following a violent attempted raid on a garden nursery in North Yorkshire.

The four were disturbed by the owners of Ravensworth Garden Nurseries, near Richmond, at around 4am on Saturday.

And in their effort to escape they attacked 66-year-old Bill Hannah with iron bars before fleeing in their waiting car.

Mr Hannah was hit on the arm and head but was not seriously hurt and did not require any hospital treatment.

His partner and brother-in-law Doug Bradbrook, 67, said they had gone to investigate after the alarm system went off.

"There were four of them pulling CDs and things out of the wagons in our new building. My brother-in-law got on the phone to the police and then they came out with iron bars," he said.

"They had steel posts about five feet long but Bill is all right now. In retrospect perhaps we shouldn't have gone up there but you don't think of that at the time."

The four thugs drove off in a dark-coloured car towards the A66. One of them was described as shaven-headed, about 5ft 9ins tall with a camouflage jacket.

Richmond CID are appealing for any information about the raid or the offenders. Contact (01609) 789357.