A HAVE-A-GO hero has described the terrifying moment he came face-to-face with two burglars in his home.

Stephen Ellis, 47, returned to his home in Ardleigh to find the gates open and a downstairs window smashed.

His daughters, aged 15 and eight, and son, five, were in the house.

Mr Ellis said: “I saw a black guy bending down, going through a cupboard.

“I hurled myself through the broken window and dived at him. I managed to get him to fall.

“I didn’t know if there was another burglar in the house.”

He punched the man, bloodying his nose, but a second man thrust an unknown sharp object towards Mr Ellis before the pair fled the house empty-handed. Mr Ellis suffered a cut hand and some bruising to his ribs.

He said: “I went upstairs to make sure my kids were alright – they were crying and trembling.”

Mr Ellis saw the burglars running down Harwich Road towards the centre of Ardleigh. He said: “Someone must have seen them. I just want them caught, they are dangerous.”

Earlier in the day his daughter had been celebrating her eighth birthday at the house.

He said: “It has absolutely destroyed my daughter’s birthday. The kids don’t want to sleep in their own beds.”

The break-in happened on Friday between 9.45pm and 10.15pm, when Mr Ellis’s wife had left to pick him up from Manningtree, not realising he was on his way home in a taxi.

The suspects are described as black, aged 25 to 30. One was 5ft 11ins and skinny, the other 5ft 6ins and stocky.

Anyone with information can call Det Con Dave Brooks at Clacton CID on 101.