THE detective leading the hunt for the almshouse raiders who held an elderly woman at knifepoint believes someone in the community knows who they are.

The two men wearing balaclavas and gas masks forced them into the Devizes home of a 77-year-old grandmother and one of them held a knife at her chest.

But DC Rebecca Taylor says she has not received as many calls as she would have expected. She said: “This was a truly shocking thing to happen in Devizes. Everyone is appalled by what has happened and people want to help but as yet we have not received any clear leads on who carried out this attack.

“I think there is a good chance they are local and somebody out there must have heard something that could help us.

“I would appeal for anyone who has heard anything or saw anything suspicious to come forward.”

Police believe the men, one tall and the other short, first visited the victim in Sedgefield Gardens on Friday, June 19, at lunchtime but after she answered the door said it was the wrong house.

The following day the victim was confronted by two men on her doorstep at about 8.10am. She told the Gazette: “I was dragged into my living room and held down on the sofa with the knife at my neck.”

Eventually her screams frightened them off and they ran away without taking anything.”

But the violence of the attack has left other pensioners living on the complex scared to leave their homes to even sit in the garden.

DC Taylor said: “It is so sad. The victim is a remarkable lady and seems to be coping well but everyone is very worried.

“We are doing our best to reassure them but this coming on top of all the worries about coronvarius is a terrible blow to them.

“We are doing everything we can to find the men. We have looked at the town’s CCTV and CCTV from other places and I am going through it all again to look at both the Friday and the Saturday.

“At this stage we do not know if they had a vehicle or which of the exits from the complex that they used.”

She said Bobby Van officers had visited the victim and the Devizes Almshouse Trust was now going to install CCTV on the site.

People in Devizes were shocked by the raid. Brian Davie said: “Please do everything you can to find them .”