FOOTBALLERS are installing panic rooms at their mansions after a series of vicious raids on top players.

Premier League stars - including City and United players - have splashed out more than £50,000 each on secure bunkers at their homes.

The safe rooms have panic buttons, thickened walls, toughened windows and mobile phones that are kept charged. Some have wireless laptops that can be used if phone lines are cut.

The panic rooms give the stars and their families a 15-minute 'safety window' until help arrives.

Top players living in the Macclesfield borough - which includes Prestbury - have installed the panic rooms at their homes.

A number of Premiership stars including Wayne Rooney and wife Coleen, Manchester United defender Wes Brown and team-mate Owen Hargreaves live in Prestbury.

A spokesman for private security firm Benchmark PA said a number of high profile customers have paid them to fit panic rooms at homes in Macclesfield and other parts of Cheshire.

Paul Hughes, from Benchmark PA, said: "We're getting an extra couple a week. We’ve probably installed a dozen of the rooms and we’ve had a lot more enquiries.

"There's a lot of concern out there over what's happening."

Paul, a former bodyguard of David and Victoria Beckham, added: "The rooms can take many forms, but they are doing the same thing. If the resident can get there, it keeps them safe until we arrive.

"The problem for the players is that everybody knows where they live, and everybody knows when they are away playing football. It makes them easy targets.2

There has been a spate of raids on footballers' homes this year. In February, United star Darren Fletcher's fiance Hayley Grice had a knife held to her throat by a hooded gang who raided their mansion.