TWO masked gunmen escaped with a substantial amount of cash following a raid at a petrol station.

The men burst into a Kearsley petrol station just as staff were handing over the day's takings to security guards yesterday afternoon.

Terrified workers at the Esso Park View Service Station in Bolton Road, Kearsley, were forced to hand over cash at gunpoint.

The robbers, wearing balaclavas and carrying handguns, struck just before 4pm as a Securitas van arrived to collect cash from the garage.

Both the security guards and the petrol station staff were unhurt but left badly shaken by the second armed robbery to happen in Bolton in eight days and the fourth in a month.

The men fled in a car which was later found abandoned nearby.

Police are examining CCTV footage of the incident to try to identify the men and officers interviewed people living nearby. Forensics teams were also at the garage searching for clues. Witnesses said the men leapt over a wall at the back of the petrol station before they went inside the shop. Then heard car tyres squealing as the robbers made their escape.

Cllr Bill Collison, who lives next to the garage, watched from the other side of the road as the drama unfolded.

"I saw two men jump over the wall and run into the petrol station," he said. "They were in there for about two minutes and then they ran out, jumped back over the same wall and got into a car.

"I didn't really get a good look or hear anything from the other side of the road, but the car screeched off and it was gone.

"It all happened very quickly."

Det Con Steve Keeley, of Bolton CID, said: "The men struck as the van arrived to pick up the money which suggests this was well planned. We are looking at CCTV footage of the premises and will be interviewing all the witnesses and victims.

"This was a terrifying incident for all those concerned and we are thankful that nobody was hurt."

Last Thursday, armed raiders stole more than £100,000 from a bank in Winter Hey Lane, Horwich after threatening customers with a knife and handgun just minutes after a security van had dropped off cash. Terrified bank staff, fearing for the safety of the two women in the branch at the time, opened the safe and handed over money before the men ran off to a waiting car.

At the start of August, a man posing as a postman tied up bank staff as they arrived at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Deane Road, Deane, and threatened them with a gun before making off with a "six-figure" sum.

Yesterday's raid echoes a similar attack on two security guards who struck at a petrol station in Bradford Street, The Haulgh, around three weeks ago.

Two masked men threatened to slash security guards unless they agreed to hand over cash boxes containing more than £100,000 which was about to be put into a cash machine. Police say it too early to say if the robberies are linked.

No-one from Securitas was available for comment.