Robbers ‘set off smoke bomb’ while raiding Prestwich c-store

A convenience store in Prestwich was raided on Thursday (17) by a gang of robbers who also set off a “smoke bomb” to hide themselves from CCTV.

According to local reports, police and fire crews were called to Zed’s Convenience Store on Bury Old Road to reports of a break-in just before midnight.

A witness described seeing four hooded men enter the building by lifting the metal shutters. A “smoke bomb” was then allegedly set off inside the premises, reports said.

Enquiries into the incident are currently ongoing, a spokesman for GMP said.

Joshua Morrison, who witnessed the burglary, told a local news outlet that the robbers fled the scene on dirt bikes.

He said: “At around 11:54 myself and two friends were driving through Bury Old Road.

As we passed Armstrongs in Prestwich we all saw four hooded guys breaking into Zed’s Convenience Store.

“We could see they had lifted the whole front metal shutters and also set off some sort of smoke bomb within the convenient store to hide from CCTV.

“As we drove a few metres pass the scene I began to call 999 but luckily a police car drove straight by our car, so I jumped out and informed them what was going on.

“By the time they made it to the store, two dirt bikes with two lads on each bike sped off from the scene of the crime, one down Bury Old Road and the other down Heywood Road.

“Two fire engines arrived at the crime scene and we were thanked by the police and told we would be informed if anymore was needed,” said the witness.