AN elderly Kidderminster couple were subjected to a terrifying ordeal at the hands of thieves who cut up their car in a country lane.

Peter and Tess Grantham, of Coates Road, were driving along Hackman's Gate Lane, between Blakedown and Belbroughton, at around 1.30pm on Wednesday last week when the incident happened.

They were forced to brake and pull over by a car that had been following.

It then overtook them, making them stop.

Two men got out of the pursuing car and opened a back door on the car of the couple, who were both in their 70s.

The robbers took a handbag from the back seat and fled, after another car arrived on the scene.

The couple did not see a weapon but were left shaken.

Mr Grantham said police had retrieved most of what was taken.

Fleeing thieves threw stolen items from their vehicle as they made their escape.

He explained: "A woman saw a car being driven erratically and stuff being thrown out of the windows.

"She rang the police and told them.

"They found the stuff from the handbag."

Mr Grantham thought the thieves could have been in their early 20s.

Kidderminster Police spokesman Caroline Schubert said such incidents were "very unusual" in the Wyre Forest area.

She was unable to confirm whether the Hackman's Gate Lane robbery was thought to be connected with a series of recent carjackings across the Black Country.

Victims had been threatened by knife-wielding robbers wearing balaclavas.