SELBY detectives were today hunting armed robbers who attacked two shops within 12 hours of each other.

Early today masked raiders escaped with cash from Dinsdales Butchers Shop, in High Street, Tadcaster, where they held a knife to an employee's throat.

And at the Costcutter Store, in Stutton Road, Tadcaster, the 71-year-old shop owner had to fend off a knife-wielding robber by throwing boxes of cereal at him.

Police said today they were linking the two incidents.

At Dinsdales, the shop assistant, in his early 20s, suffered a cut to his face during the ordeal, which happened just before 7am today, as he was opening up the shop.

The robbers rifled the till before running off, leaving the employee badly shaken.

Only 12 hours earlier, two men wearing balaclavas and brandishing a knife burst into the Costcutter store. It was the second time in three days the shop had been attacked.

This time, owner Barry Hanby was in the shop on his own and threw boxes of cereal at one of the robbers as he lunged at him with a knife.

Mr Hanby said: "One of the men was laid on the counter rifling the till, while the other was lunging at me with a knife and shouting: 'Get back'.

"I was frightened to turn my back on him and started to throw boxes of cereal at him. I then grabbed some tins of beans, but before I could throw them they ran out of the door and through an alleyway into the Woodlands estate."

My Hanby, who pulled a muscle in his leg, added: "The police are doing all they can, but it's getting beyond a joke. It's unbelievable - I don't know what the world is coming to."

Police said they later apprehended a 14-year-old boy who was said to have a knife and balaclava in his pocket. But after being interviewed, the boy was eliminated from their inquiries.

Updated: 14:49 Monday, February 04, 2002