A MUM from Bury who had just finished her shopping with her two-year-old witnessed a shocking robbery at Tesco. 

Emma Bell, aged 30, witnessed the robbery this afternoon in the car park of the store in Woodfields Retail Park. 

She said the robbers were taking bags from a navy cash delivery van to their own white van. 

She said she was "shaken" by the events, which culminated in the robbers setting fire to their own van, something she said had 'scared' her daughter Naomi. 

Mrs Bell said: "We had just come out of Tesco. 

"It was just near where the parent and child spaces.

"The money van was at the back of Tesco. 

"As we walked round the corner someone said 'I wouldn't go down there'. 

"We could see the two men going in and out of the van. The guy from the money van was on the corner on his phone.

"There was one guy in the van doing a lot of banging and another was bringing out what I think was the money. 

"One of them had high vis on, they were in a white van, they might have been pretending they were workers."

'Attempted armed robbery and fire' at Tesco, Woodfields Retail Park in Bury

She added otherwise the two men were dressed all in black. 

She went on: "They drove their van to the corner of the car park and escaped through the bushes. 

"The next thing, flames started coming from the van."

She said the police and fire service arrived quickly after the incident. 

Mrs Bell added: "I was shaken, you don't expect it, you see it on TV but on a Friday at midday you don't expect there to be something like that."

There have been reports the robbers used weapons but Mrs Bell said she saw no weapons, but added she did not see the start of the robbery.