POLICE are hunting two teenagers who threatened to kill a debt collector after robbing her at knife point.

Their victim - a grandmother-of-eight - said last night she thought she was going to die.

Having forced the 49-year-old's car to stop, the youths smashed the driver's window and tried to pull the terrified woman through it.

The point of a knife was pressed into her chest.

One of the robbers screamed: "We know you have got cash. Give us it or you will die."

Recalling the ordeal, the woman said: "I honestly thought that was it - I am going to die. I must have mentally blacked out because I can't remember handing over the money - but I must have."

The robbers escaped with £1,500 collected from 180 customers who had taken out house loans.

They ambushed the woman in a cul-de-sac in Hemlington, near Middlesbrough.

The woman said: "Two lads stepped out in front of me. I thought they were crossing the road.

"The glass shattered all over me and a hand came through the window. I was grabbed round the throat and they tried to pull me through the window."

The woman is too scared to leave her house.

She said: "My confidence has gone. I don't know whether I will be able to go back to work."

PC Rob Carroll said: "This was a nasty and violent attack which could have been a lot worse."

Anyone with information about Monday evening's robbery, in Darwen Court, should contact police on (01642) 303117 or 303118.