Thieves made off with around £5,000 of cigarettes and tobacco when they raided a village store.

Masked raiders used a sledgehammer to smash through a window of the Central Convenience Store in The Street, Hurst, shortly after 3am on Thursday.

Store manager Jane O’Reilly said: “It’s a bit disheartening.

“You just don’t expect that sort of thing in Hurst.

“It only took them three minutes. They emptied some magazine boxes and filled them up [together with a shopping basket] with cigarettes.

“Police came with dogs and they picked up a scent going somewhere towards Hogmoor Lane.

“They think they had a vehicle parked up the lane.”

The smashed window, to the left of the store’s main entrance, was repaired by 3pm that day.

The burglary is the first attack on the shop since it became a Central store in July.

“I locked up as usual at 9pm and then got a call from the alarm company at 3am,” Mrs O’Reilly added.

“I came with my husband and thought maybe a sign had fallen and triggered the alarm. I never thought it would be a break-in.

“Some neighbours alerted police and they were there when I arrived.”

The manager is now thinking of getting shutters put up at the entrance to increase the shop’s security.

The store has previously been targeted twice in the last six years by armed robbers.

Staff were taken to hospital in January 2010 after two robbers struck them with a hammer.

The thieves hit the store at 4am as the two workers prepared for opening.

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