GAZETTE & HERALD: POSTMASTER Steve Cardwell told how he was left shocked and splattered with blood after an attempted raid on his store.

Mr Cardwell, 47, has been running Yatton Keynell Post Office and Off Licence for seven years, after moving from London in search of a quieter life.

But at 3.30pm last Wednesday afternoon, he was in the store with a female assistant when three men walked in. While one of the men asked him for an application form, another tried to force his way into the post office cubicle where Mr Cardwell was standing.

A shop assistant was pushed to the back of the shop and told to keep quiet.

Mr Cardwell managed to press a panic button below the desk and the shop alarm sounded, sending the men running from the shop.

"It all happened so quickly," said Mr Cardwell, who later needed two stitches to a wound above his mouth. "And it's still a bit hazy.

"When they left, there was blood all over my shirt and down the door."

It was later revealed that a 75-year-old woman, who was travelling past the village store at around 3.20pm, took down the registration number of the car which was believed to have been used by the raiders.

The woman who did not want to be named, said: "I saw a car I didn't recognise parked in a strange place, a way along from the post office and memorised its licence plate, just in case.

"I wrote it down when I got home and later when I found out what had happened at the store I called the police and gave them the number.

"I don't know whether it helped, but I suppose it was good thing to do in terms of Neighbourhood Watch."

The post office and shop was closed for the remainder of Wednesday afternoon, but Mr Cardwell opened as usual on Thursday. "I felt okay a bit shaken up and so was my assistant.

"A lot of people have been in asking what happened. People say they were surprised because it was in broad daylight.

"As it was, the shop was quiet at the time. The men could have been outside waiting for the right moment to come in."

Mr Cardwell said he worked in London for 23 years and came to Yatton Keynell expecting a quiet backwater.

"You don't expect something like this to happen in a place like Yatton Keynell, but it's been quite the reverse," he said.

Retired postal worker Graham Whiting, 65, of Yatton Keynell, said residents had been disturbed by the incident: "It's all very worrying, it seems that people will knock you down for 50p these days," he said.

"But I'm not entirely surprised. Village post offices like ours can be vulnerable and there has been a number of break-ins here recently."

Dorothy Smith, 70, Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator for the village, praised the quick actions of the postmaster and the woman who wrote down the suspect car registration.