A WOMAN who was shot by armed robbers as she tried to protect two children has insisted that she would do the same thing again.

Retired nurse Susan Hunt was hit by shotgun pellets in her leg as she tried to shield the children as the gunmen opened fire in the street as they fled.

The quick-thinking 62-year-old tried to wheel a buggy carrying two children to safety as the gunmen opened fire after stealing £120,000 from a Westhoughton bank.

And speaking today, after one man was cleared of his involvement in the raid, Mrs Hunt said: "I'm not a hero and I'd do the same again tomorrow."

Stuart Grainger, who is currently serving a life jail term for murder, was found not guilty at Manchester Crown Court yesterday of being part of the gang which brought terror to the streets of Westhoughton.

A jury of seven men and five women took just 40 minutes to return the not guilty verdict following a five-day trial.

The acquittal came five years after a three-man gang burst into Barclays bank in Westhoughton wielding shotguns and vaulted a security screen.

Customers were forced to lie face down on the floor while female members of staff were told by one of the gang: "I'll blow your legs off."

Once the men had gained access to the bank's "strong room" and machines, they loaded notes into sports holdalls before they emerged onto Market Street and into a dramatic stand-off with police.

Four uniformed police officers rushed from Westhoughton Police Station after a traffic warden had spotted the men storming into the bank.

After moving customers to safety, Sgt Ray Jackson came face-to-face with the robbers and alerted a gathering crowd that the men were wielding shotguns.

From her place at the back of a post office queue, Mrs Hunt spotted the two children stranded in a pushchair amid the unfolding drama and sprang to their aid.

"Someone shouted: 'He's got a gun' and I just thought: 'Get the kids'," said Mrs Hunt.

As the retired nurse frantically tried to release the brake on the pushchair, one of the robbers fired a shot into the busy street as Sgt Jackson confronted them.

Mrs Hunt said: "I couldn't get the brake off because I'd not used a buggy before.

"I went to tip it forward and then there was a shot.

"It felt as if someone had thrown gravel at my legs." Mrs Hunt, Sgt Jackson and two other police officers who were hit by the flying pellets escaped serious injury because the cartridges had been modified to carry less shot and gunpowder.

The gang escaped in a Mitsubishi Spacewagon which was later found abandoned.

Mrs Hunt, of Westhoughton, was praised by senior police chiefs for her quick thinking in helping the children, then aged two years and nine months.

She said: "I didn't think I'd done anything special I just carried on with my shopping.

"It's no different to what any mother of father would have done.

"I was a nurse and it's part of my make-up."

Grainger was linked to the robbery through a number of forensic links, Richard Marks, prosecuting, had alleged at the start of the trial.

But Stuart Lawson-Rogers, defending, told the jury there was no single piece of evidence which was strong enough to convict Grainger.

Grainger was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Derek Ianson who was killed by sub-machinegun fire in Salford in May 2000 despite maintaining his innocence.

Mr Grainger's stepfather, John Schofield, aged 43, said yesterday's verdict cast doubt on his murder conviction.

Grainger was the only man to have been charged in connection with the Westhoughton robbery.