TWO terrified shop assistants were threatened with a knife as thieves wearing halloween masks stole nearly £5,000 from a Chorley convenience store.

One assistant was throwing out rubbish at the back of the Dawn till Dusk shop on Carr Lane when two masked raiders held a knife to her throat and forced her back into the shop.

She and another assistant were then forced to let the thieves into a storeroom and ordered to open the door of the safe.

The raiders were able to make off with more than £4,000 in cash and £900 in pre-paid mobile phone cards from companies, including One-2-One, Orange, Cellnet and Vodafone.

They left the two shocked assistants locked in the storeroom as they made their escape.

The suspects, a man and a woman, wore halloween masks and hooded coats. They made their escape in a white, two-door hatchback car and sped towards Bolton Road, Chorley.

They struck at around 9.30pm on Sunday as the store was preparing to close. Neither assistant was injured during the raid.

The theft is the second violent robbery to hit Chorley in recent weeks. Knife-wielding raiders targeted a newsagent's shop on Gilbert Street, slashing the hand of the owner in the process.

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