A FRIGHTENED family have described their terror after a gang of armed raiders tried to break into their home in the middle of the night.

Crooks armed with baseball bats and large knives smashed the ground floor windows of a house in Broadway, Jaywick, and tried to force their way inside.

Yvonne Mansfield and husband Darren were woken by the noise and ran downstairs.

They found the raiders clambering through the broken windows.

Brave Darren tried to fight the men off, hitting them with a vacuum cleaner extension to keep them out, while Yvonne phoned the police.

The couple’s five year-old daughter Kourtney was in the house at the time and witnessed the horror.

Yvonne, 34, said: “We heard a smashing noise and my husband ran downstairs, and I went after him.

“I saw guys holding bats and knives trying to climb in through the windows and trying to get through the door. It was just a mess of arms and legs and weapons.

“My husband shouted for me to call the police and he was trying to beat them away.

“It was absolutely terrifying and I was screaming.

“All I could think was if they get in how am I going to protect my daughter. We were so scared.”

The would-be burglars fled when they saw blue flashing lights approaching in the darkness.

Yvonne said: “They could see the police coming because the streetlights were off and they ran.

“We found out afterwards that a few of the neighbours saw what was going on but they too scared to come out.

“They feared for their lives, and we did too.

“My little girl didn’t want to come back into the house afterwards.

“Fortunately my other children weren’t home at the time, but everyone has been on edge since it happened. None of us have slept properly.”

The attack happened last month, at about 1.20am on Monday August 8.

Shattered glass was left littered around the windows and doors.

Since then they have been forced to secure the broken windows with makeshift boarding, but the landlord installed new windows last week.

Yvonne added: “We’ve lived here for two years and nothing like this has ever happened before.

“One of the scariest things is not knowing why it happened, or whether it was just a random attack and we were the unlucky ones.

“We just don’t know. It’s horrible to think about.”

Anyone with information on the incident should call police on 101.

Yvonne has also criticised the police response to the incident.

Officers were on the scene quickly to ward off the crooks and told the family they would return in daylight to investigate.

They returned the following day but were soon called away to another incident and have not been back.

Yvonne said: “I know there aren’t many of them now but this is serious and it’s their job to catch these people and protect us.

“I don’t think it’s good enough.”

A police spokesman said the volume of calls and incidents received mean officers have to prioritise.

She said: “Essex Police receives about 650 emergency calls every day, in addition to about 900 calls on the non-emergency number.

“It is a key priority to reach emergency calls as soon as possible in order to help those in most need of police assistance, and we assess every call based on threat, harm, risk and vulnerability.

“Where there is immediate danger or threat of personal injury, we aim to be on the scene within 15 minutes for urban emergencies and within 20 minutes in rural areas.”

The spokesman said resources are sent where they are most needed.