STAFF at a Hampshire garden centre outlet were attacked by a man as he tried to make off with two chainsaws.

A “well dressed” man entered Andover Garden Machinery, in Salisbury Road, and began looking at the saws.

A post on the shop’s Facebook page reads: “We did not think anything of it at the time but luckily one of our staff members was watching the cameras from around the corner.

"As soon as he made a break for the door with the two saws the two staff members on duty dropped what they were doing and made chase.

“Once out in the car park, the thief realised he had been spotted and proceeded to turn around and make threats towards our staff.

“He then threw one of the saws at a colleagues head, narrowly missing and fortunately avoiding serious injury.”

A video, with the post, shows that the man then ran onto the grass area alongside Salisbury Road.

“By this point he had removed the protective scabbard off the remaining saw and was wielding around to fend off staff members and a few members of the public who approached to help,” the post continues.

The video shows that a regular customer of Andover Garden Machinery drove onto the grass area in order to “selflessly put his car between the "attacker" and the people trying to stop him”.

“At this point the thief threw the last saw at the car, causing a high amount of aesthetic damages to the door and column and made a run for it, seen in the footage is two guys running, this indicates he was not alone and this was more than likely his getaway driver or his support,” the store has said.

The video shows the men run off into Cattle Lane before, the store says, a member of staff “tackled the thief to the ground”.

It is understood the men than ran off and got into a car before driving off down Salisbury Road in a car with the number plate HV02 GZR.

The incident is said to have happened at around 12pm on Sunday, July 21,

The store has thanked the members of the public who assisted in the incident.

It said: “We would like to say a very very special thank you those members of the public who got involved to support our team when this was taking place, it is healthy and reassuring to see the community coming together to prevent this kind of thing from happening.”

It is now appealing for anyone who has any information or witnessed the incident to either contact the store on Facebook or Crimestoppers, anonymously, quoting crime reference number 44190254933.