A TAKEAWAY owner had a lucky escape after a van crashed into his shop causing thousands of pounds worth of damage.

CCTV footage captured the moment the vehicle reversed into the front of Grillicious in Tonge Moor Road, Bolton.

After the impact, which happened at around 11pm on Thursday night, two men appeared to jump out of the van before fleeing the scene, leaving the van behind.

Shafan Ahmed owns the takeaway with his brother Yacoob and was cleaning close to the window at the time of the incident.

The 29-year-old said: “I was in there cleaning up near the window and all of a sudden I just felt something like an earthquake. There’s a ledge next to our window and I saw that crack. I looked out and saw a van completely pulled into the window and the guy on the passenger side jumped out. I didn’t know what to do, I just thought ‘what the hell’.

“I thought it was an accident that caused the cars to collide with the shop. I ran out to see what happened and just saw the van parked there and the driver and passenger had fled. I was just in shock.”

The impact made the shop front cave in and damaged the window, shutters, brickwork and the ice cream machine.

Mr Ahmed, of Rishton Lane, estimated the damage to be around £4,000 to £5,000, as the ice cream machine costs in the region of £2,500.

He said: “It’s just a shock and the thing is, I sit on that ledge all the time if it gets too hectic. Realistically, if I was there when it happened, things could have been a lot worse. It would have been like a car crashing into my back. We were lucky that nobody was hurt.

“It’s not even the potential loss of business coming in, it’s the cost. How am I going to cover the damage and wages? We have only been open for four weeks if that and we have built a steady flow of customers. We could potentially lose that.”

Mr Ahmed has handed the CCTV footage to the police and he said they were investigating. He said the van was taken away by officers for inspection.