TRADERS throughout East Lancashire were being warned to be on their guard against a hammer-wielding, hooded gang doing their 'Christmas shopping.'

The alert followed a raid on the Daintee store, on Burnley's Smallshow industrial estate, where they got away with a £350,000 haul, after the last of the customers had left.

The fourth phase of a £3.7 million scheme to replace lead water mains in Burnley got under way.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.