Masked thugs attacked the owner of a Black Country post office, slashing his face and breaking his ankle before making off with £6,000.

Jeet Sahota, 40, was assaulted with a knife and a crowbar as he closed his shop in Newton Road, Great Barr, on Monday night.

It is the third time his business has been targeted in the past three years and he is now frightened to go back to work.

Mr Sahota, who lives in Celeste Road, Bromsgrove, has owned the shop for 14 years.

He said: “I was just finishing off and was going to go home and there was a knock at the back door. I thought it was the tenants who live upstairs, but I was hit with a crowbar.

“They hit me on the side of my face and then they slashed me with a knife. They missed my eye by half a millimetre, otherwise they would have blinded me.”

Mr Sahota, who is married to teacher Suky, aged 35 and has two sons, Simran, aged 12 who goes to Dartmouth High School and seven-year-old Dylan who attends Grove Vale, thought his attackers were going to kill him.

He said: “I thought I was dead. They just kept hitting me. I had a blow to the chest and they knifed me in my chest and in my leg.

“I was on the floor they had their feet on my face and on my neck and just kept whacking me on the leg with the crowbar. I screamed don’t kill me, don’t kill me, they just kept saying they wanted cash.”

They put a mail bag over the terrified postmaster;s face so he would not be able to identify them. He was then forced to unlock the safe before they made off with the money.

Mr Sahota was taken to Sandwell Hospital and had 22 stitches in his face and his lower leg is in plaster.

It’s not the first time the store has been targeted. Two years ago his wife was threatened at gunpoint, while last year a Securicor van delivering money to the store was robbed.

He said: “They need to be caught as soon as possible before they kill somebody, or someone is even more seriously injured.”

One offender is described as a black man, wearing a black hooded top, blue jeans and a balaclava, while the second man is white, wearing grey tracksuit bottoms, a white and grey horizontal striped hooded top and a balaclava.

Both are about 5’ 11” tall and in their late 20s.

Call police on 0845 1135000 to help.