'I woke up to screaming', terrifying moment gang with machete burst into Sunderland family home

• Watch Gregg Easteal's Video Report.

A Sunderland family has spoken of the terrifying moment a gang of men wielding a machete burst into their home.

Stuart Marshland was left bleeding heavily from cuts to his arms as he fought back the intruders just after 11pm on Friday 26 August.

After he heard three loud bangs outside the house, he approached the front door and saw people wearing balaclavas.

Mr Marshland said: "When I opened the inner door, there was a third bang and the door came in past me and I saw people with balaclavas.

"At that point, I was shouting at them to get out the house, pushing them, stopping them from getting in.

"That was when the right hand came up with a machete. I put my hands up to protect myself and then the machete came down."

When he finally got up, he saw the men getting into a car before taking off down the street.

He said: "After a few blows, I ended up on the floor and that's when I heard screams behind me and then after that it wasn't long before they had left.

"When I was knocked to the floor, it went through my mind that this could be it, but I was thinking about my family and not myself."

Mr Marshland thinks that his daughter Jessica shouting from the top of the stairs stopped the men from further attacking him when they realised that they were in the wrong house.

He said: "I think Jessica shouting from the top of the stairs stopped them.

"They looked at Jessica and realised that they were potentially in the wrong house."

Mr Marshland's wife Claudia said that she thinks she hears noises following the incident.

She said: "I saw the blood and his arm and I didn't believe that it was happening to us.

"You don't know what to do because you're in such shock that it's happening.

"That people came into your house - your safe place - and they harm you over something that has nothing to do with [you]. They were after someone else and they got the wrong house."

She added: "We can't use the front door. Every noise, we check the window. At night, we're not sleeping well. I can't go for a walk with the dogs.

"I hear noises all the time. It's your home and your safe place."

Ms Marshland said that daughter Jessica now struggles to sleep and rarely leaves their home.

She said: "She's not sleeping very well. She's constantly at our side. She doesn't want to go out and she keeps texting us to ask us to come back because she hears noises.

"How do you make her feel safe again?

"We keep telling her that they're not coming back but will they?"

Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To know...