ARMED robbers stole cash, cigarettes and taking from the safe after terrifying staff in a supermarket hold-up.

As many as four raiders  - at least one of them wielding an axe - burst in to the Co-operative store in Chorley New Road, Horwich, at 11.05pm yesterday.

A GMP spokesman said: "Three or four offenders have entered the store just after or around closing time and started making threats to open the tills.

"They took money, and cigarettes from behind the counter, have also got into the store safe.

"There's no indication any of the staff were injured."

The store is located in the former Greenwood Arms pub, alongside a Subway sandwich shop, a Greenhalgh's bakery and a Barnardo's charity shop, and opened at the end of November last year.

Locals commenting on social media suggested the robbers had been seen with machetes but the police spokesman said the force's enquiries did not back this up.

It is understood the raiders fled from the supermarket in a Mercedes after pulling off the heist.

Firefighters from Horwich were called out to extinguish a Mercedes on fire at 11.10pm in Academy Way on the new Middlebrook View estate off Lostock Lane between Lostock and Horwich. 

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service are treating the blaze as "possibly deliberate".

GMP has been unable to formally link the two incidents at present.

The Bolton News:

Debra Jones said on Facebook: "This is terrible. I hope all the staff are safe.

"How scary and horrendous for them. My daughter works there.

"She is only 20, staff there are getting paid minimum wage and on a daily basis they challenge the many shop lifters, who feel it is there right to take what they want - and now this."

A spokesman for The Co-op said: "There was an incident at our store in Chorley New Road, Horwich, on Monday night around 11pm when intruders entered the store.

"No one was hurt, but staff were shaken.

"The store re-opened as usual this morning and we appeal for anyone with information to come forward to the police."

Video supplied by N. Fraser

Did you see or hear anything about the robbery, or have photographs or video? E-mail crime reporter Ian Proctor at ian.proctor@nqnw.co.uk or send them in via our website