THIEVES smashed their way in to a town centre shop before stealing cash and cigarettes in a late night raid.

The burglary, at Supernews in Penny Street, Blackburn, saw the raiders escape with a large number of cigarettes, as well as the shop’s safe.

The incident happened at 2am yesterday (Thurs). Police said that the building’s shutters were damaged before a glass panel in the door was smashed.

The burglars then crawled in to the shop and stole cigarettes, mostly in multi-packs, and tore out the safe.

In tearing out the safe there was substantial damage caused to the counter.

Area manager Angela Tetley said: “We don’t really know yet how much has been taken. There was money in the safe, but it was hundreds of pounds rather than thousands, and they also got a lot of cigarettes. In fact they just cleaned out three of the shelves behind the counter, trying to get the big packs.

“We think it was the cigarettes in particular that they were looking for. Unfortunately it does happen, and we have incidents like this at our other shops across the country.

“There has been quite a bit of damage caused to the shop when they pulled the safe out and the shutters were very badly damaged.” Yesterday morning the shop was being examined and fingerprinted by police crime scene investigators and the shutters and door were being repaired.

The shop is expected to re-open this morning.

Anyone with information can contact police on 0845 125 3545.