Police are appealing for witnesses following the raid, in which a man went into the post office, inside the village shop, armed with a handgun and knife and threatened the postmistress.

He escaped the Thelnetham Road premises with cash before getting into a dark-coloured people carrier, which had two other occupants, and drove off.

Police were called shortly after 11am and closed the store and started door-to-door inquiries. A helicopter was called in to help with searches from the air.

The shop re-opened on Wednesday afternoon but the post office counter remained closed for the rest of the day.

The store owner, who did not wish to be named, said she was at the shop at the time of the raid, but was very shocked. She added no-one was hurt in the incident.

Patrick Crooke, whose Nethergate Street home faces the store, said it had come as a big surprise.

"We pop over the shop all the time, two or three times a day, to get things," he said. "We've been here 10 years and it is the first time I've ever heard of anything like this."

A resident of nearby Walnut Close, who has lived in the village for 20 years, said she was shocked to hear about the robbery.

"Normally people are well behaved in this village," she said.

"I went to the shop this morning and everything was normal. It wasn't until later, when the police came and told me, that I knew anything had happened.

"They asked about a car, they wanted to know if it had turned around in the road and what direction it went in.

"My first thought was for the postmistress. I wish I'd been there when the robber came in as I have got a walker and I could've got him with it."

The robber is described as white, in his 20s, between 5ft 10ins and 6ft tall and wearing dark glasses, a grey fleece, light-coloured jeans and a red baseball cap.

Witnesses should call West Suffolk CID on 01473 613500.


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