A mum has spoken of her terror after two intruders who broke into her home were only disturbed because they tripped a new alarm system.

Donna Hough and her husband James, of Emerald View, Warden Bay, had the security equipment installed last month after a break-in which happened while their 16-year-old daughter was at home.

On Monday evening, the family had popped out to visit another daughter who lives nearby when they were alerted to the fact their intruder alarm was going off via their mobile phones, which it is linked to.

They rushed home to find their front door had been forced open. The burglars escaped empty-handed but were caught on camera.

Mrs Hough said the fact they were inside their home was horrible. She thinks they must have only been inside for a minute, as it takes that long for the alarm to kick in, and then they ran off when it sounded.

The 46-year-old said: “Luckily they didn’t even get time to take anything but they went straight upstairs, past the two dogs, to the loft, which is really weird. I’m confused why they went straight there.

“It makes me feel absolutely sick to the stomach to see them in the house.

“It’s terrible – we must have just missed them.”

Mrs Hough says in the CCTV footage you can see them knocking on the door, which she assumes was to see if anyone was home before breaking in.

She thinks they must have parked across the road in a car park which is where the footage shows them heading.

The reason they had the system installed was because last month her daughter was home alone and someone knocked on the door.

She didn’t answer it but she heard the dogs barking and shouted to them to be quiet, then heard the front door slam, so rushed to the front of the house to see a car screeching away.

Mrs Hough, who is manager at Harts Holiday Park in Leysdown, says she wants to warn other people in the area as she thinks the tactic is to knock on doors first before attempting to break in and steal things.

Police are investigating the break in, which happened between 8.45pm and 8.48pm. Anyone with information should phone them on 101, quoting crime reference XY/32061/13.