Axed granny chases raider

A HEROIC grandmother chased a vicious thief – after he had hit her over the head with his axe.

The 6ft thug is captured on CCTV robbing a newsagents before blood-soaked Ann Sage, 68, runs out to raise the alarm.

Footage shows the hooded man pull out the hatchet, jump over the counter and threaten cashier Sue Thomas, 65.

But fearless shop owner Ann confronts the axeman, telling him: “You don’t frighten me, I’m calling the police.”

As she dials 999, the raider throws her to the floor and smashes the axe into her head at Craven Street Stores in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. He then grabs around £300 while Ann runs into the street to try to stop him.

Ann, who has run the store with husband Richard for more than 30 years, said: “He’s just a low-life. What gives him the right?

“I heard Mrs Thomas shouting, ‘No, no’. He was stood over her with the axe… she was trapped.

“I think it was the adrenaline, I just stared straight at him and said: ‘You don’t frighten me’.

“But as I started on the phone he came after me. He pushed me to the ground and brought the axe down into my head. I picked myself up and ran into the street with blood dripping everywhere.

“I just yelled, ‘Help! Somebody ring the police, he’s got an axe’.

“When he came out of the shop and ran towards his car, I don’t know why but I ran after him.”

Police said the thug is aged between 20 and 35, well-built and white.

Ann, who has three grown-up children and 13 grandchildren, had her head gash glued at hospital and has severe bruising on her hip and knee.

She said: “It just wasn’t worth the trouble, what he did. The amount he took, why did he have to put us all through that?”