A TOP detective hopes TV viewers will help track down a gang of gun-toting Westhoughton bank raiders.

The police chief hopes a TV re-enactment will provide new clues for the team of detectives working on the case.

Crimewatch UK cameras were in Westhoughton yesterday and on Sunday as actors played out last month's terrifying shotgun raid at the town's branch of Barclays Bank during which three police officers were fired at.

Special police constables and senior detectives, who are probing the incident, stood by during the filming to warn passers-by that the raid was only a re-enactment.

The raid reconstruction could now appear on an episode of the Crime-busting programme on May 24.

And Det Chief Insp Dave Law is hopeful that the huge TV audience could help track down the dangerous gang members.

He said: "The thing with Crime Watch is that it reaches an immense amount of people who are watching the programme. You are getting right into the heart of everyone's homes.

"There's a lot of time and effort gone into helping Crimewatch UK staff in producing the programme. We're determined to find whoever did this and to put in all that is needed to achieve that. You always have in the back of your mind that Crimewatch can be very effective in helping a protracted inquiry which has yet to be resolved.

"This is a programme which has an excellent track record of securing arrests from information given by members of the public."

Det Supt Mick Gorrill, head of Bolton CID, is expected to go to the BBC studios to be interviewed by Crimewatch presenters if the raid is screened on the programme.

Detectives have been sifting through evidence at a special incident room set up after the gang struck on April 13 at the Market Street branch of Barclays.

They are now on the hunt for two men who were spotted loitering close to the bank, near rectory gates at Tithe Barn Street, two weeks before the raid.

And officers are still hunting for a second getaway car they believe the gang used, after dumping their first getaway vehicle, a Mitsubishi, in Church Street.

Anyone with information about the raid is asked to contact the incident room on 0161 856 5961/2 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.