Armed police and the force helicopter swooped on Ball Hill in Coventry this morning when armed raiders attacked a jeweller’s shop.

The police threw a cordon around the area and applied a news blackout after the jeweller dialled 999.

He told police he had been held up by two armed men in his shop Stoke Jewellers in Clay Lane, Ball Hill. He was slightly injured in a scuffle and early reports claimed he had been struck by the butt of a gun.

The attackers ran off, but the jeweller was unsure whether a third person had gone upstairs in his shop during the scuffle. The police sealed off the area and an armed response unit searched the shop premises to check for a third person.

The police helicopter flew over major roads looking for signs of a getaway vehicle being driven at a high speed. The jeweller’s shop is within yards of Walsgrave Road – the arterial route from Coventry to the M6 and M69 motorways.

A police spokesman stressed that no shots were fired in the incident and that there were only minor injuries to the shop owner.

No description of the wanted men has been issued and the police say they do not know whether anything was stolen.