A TAXI driver has been left “traumatised” after one of his passengers robbed him at knifepoint by holding a blade to his neck.Police are hunting two men who got into the taxi in Sudbury at about 2am yesterday morning.

A TAXI driver has been left “traumatised” after one of his passengers robbed him at knifepoint by holding a blade to his neck.

Police are hunting two men who got into the taxi in Sudbury at about 2am yesterday morning.

A spokeswoman for Suffolk Police said the driver picked up two men in Acton Lane, Sudbury.

The men asked to be ferried to Haverhill and paid the fare upfront, the spokeswoman said.

But when the taxi got to Falconer Road, in Haverhill, one of the men asked the driver to stop claiming he needed to go to the toilet.

The spokeswoman said: “As he stopped, one of the men grabbed the taxi driver around the neck and held what he believed to be a blade to his cheek. A quantity of cash was then taken from the driver's pocket and the men made off across a nearby football pitch.”

The driver was left badly shaken by his ordeal and suffered a scratch to his face.

“He is very traumatised and upset by his ordeal and he is very keen for anybody with information to come forward,” said the spokeswoman.

The incident comes amid a general warning that incidents ranging from customers fleeing vehicles without paying to abusive behaviour towards drivers were on the increase.

A spokesman for the ABC Cab Company in Haverhill, which was not involved in the incident, said: “There does seem to be a general increase in people just running off without paying. It is only one or two people but something has got to be done about it.”

He added that knife attacks were once only something reported in the bid cities like London and Manchester, but was now spreading to other areas.

“A few taxis in Bury St Edmunds now have CCTV and you can ban certain addresses. We get telephone numbers come up on our displays and if people withhold their numbers it seems a bit fishy,” he said.

“But these sorts of incidents should not be happening and nobody should have to go through this sort of thing whilst serving the public.”

Suffolk Police last night appealed for anybody with information about the incident in Haverhill to come forward.

Both men were white and of medium build and wore three-quarter length trousers. One of the men wore a baseball cap and the other had unkempt dark hair.

Anybody with information about the incident should contact Pc James McNee at Haverhill police on 01473 613500 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.