STAND-IN shop assistant Sarbaz Kadir says he is lucky to be alive after three masked raiders pointed guns at his head shouting, “We are going to kill you, give us the money.”

The 27-year-old was looking after a friend’s mini market in Clayton Road, Lidget Green, Bradford, when the raiders stormed in and aimed handguns and a shotgun at him.

Mr Kadir said: “They were all shouting 'we’re going to kill you'.

"The guns were all pointing at my head. I thought that was it and I was over so I shut the till and just slid down the back of it, expecting shots,” he said.

When no shots were fired, the trainee personal instructor dived out at the raiders from behind the counter at Kubus Euro News and put up a fight.

In the struggle, punches were thrown and he was struck on the head with what he believes was one of the guns.

The empty-handed raiders were then chased them out of the shop by Mr Kadir.

Two of them fled down Clayton Road and then on to Cemetery Road and Northside Terrace while the third ran off across the street down a path between Clayton Road Fisheries and Cutz 2000 only to be grabbed by Mr Kadir who dragged him back to the shop.

Dramatic CCTV shows him wrestling the robber, still holding the gun, to the ground.

Eventually the weapon falls from raider's grasp and slides across the pavement when a customer, who had just been in the shop moments before the attempted robbery, returns and kicks it away from them as they wrestle.

Mr Kadir said he desperately tried to flag down passing motorists to help but no-one stopped.

He later found out a man who drove by with children in the backseat flagged down a passing police car in nearby Cemetery Road.

During the struggle, Mr Kadir, of Allerton, managed to tear off the robber's mask to reveal his face.

He said: “I’m not a fighter but when this kind of thing happens to you just react, your body does what it does.

"I didn’t really have time to think about it. I didn’t want them to get the money.

"When I saw the guns I thought I was dead anyway so I might as well at least shut the till, so they couldn’t take anything.

"I slid down the back but when nothing happened I just threw myself at them.

“We were all punching, I got hit on the face, I think with a gun, and they ran off.

"I chased them out and got the one who crossed the road and dragged him back to the shop. I had him on the floor for about a minute-and-a-half.

"The gun flew out of his hand. I stood him up and got hold of the bag on his back but he slipped out of it and ran off. I did my best."

Thanks to his detailed description, detectives are now working on an e-fit of one of the men, an Asian male, aged 18 to 22, who had a thin face and a beard.

The other two suspects were also Asian males, aged between 18 to 25, and all wearing dark clothing.

Detective Inspector Ryan Bragg, of Bradford CID, said: “This was a terrifying attempted robbery on a shopkeeper simply going about his business.

"I would appeal to anyone who witnessed this incident or has any information to call police on 101 quoting log 35 of Sunday, August 6.

Despite the ordeal, Mr Kadir, who had been doing his friend a favour looking after the mini-market for a couple of hours before it shut, said he had not been put off from working there again.

He said: “Where I come from in Kurdistan, guns are everywhere.

"I hoped I would not see them again when I came here ten years ago - finally I have but I am still alive.

"I was lucky. I got one gun off the street but the other two are still out there. I hope I have kept people a little safer. We don’t want guns in our community.”