A WOMAN shop assistant was kidnapped at gunpoint by a man who forced her back to the off-licence minutes after she had finished work late at night.

The 30-year-old woman closed the Bargain Booze store in Bury New Road in Prestwich at 11.20pm on Friday (July 12) and walked to her car parked in nearby Sherbourne Court.

As she climbed into the Vauxhall Astra, a man wearing a balaclava jumped into the passenger seat. He claimed he was armed with a gun hidden inside a binbag, and forced the terrified employee back to the shop.

The woman was made to help the man load cigarettes into the car before he told her to get back in and drive away.

A police spokesman said: "When they reached the roundabout at the junction of Heys Road and Heywood Road he told her to get out and then drove off. Although the victim was shaken by the incident, she was not injured."

The blue Vauxhall Astra, registration FN51 LRA, was found abandoned the following day at 12.30pm behind the Natwest bank in Bury New Road, Prestwich. Detectives say the robber was white, in his late 20s or early 30s, approximately 6ft tall, of slim build with a stubbly beard.

He was wearing a black balaclava and a cream, beige and blue jumper with horizontal stripes.

Anyone who witnessed the kidnapping and robbery, or saw the offender before the incident or the Vauxhall being abandoned, should contact Whitefield CID on 856 8248.