A GANG armed with samurai swords threatened staff as they held up a Hampshire pub and escaped with thousands of pounds.

Workers ran to safety when three masked men smashed their way into the White Swan at Mansbridge, Southampton, late at night.

The landlord, who was confronted by one of the men demanding he empty the safe, needed hospital treatment for facial injuries.

It is the third armed raid on a pub in the area in the past three months – and detectives are not ruling out the possibility that the same gang are responsible.

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