THEY came within a hair's breadth of pulling off a raid on a hairdressing salon in Eastleigh town centre.

Burglars left a trail of hair and beauty products strewn across nearby pavements when they were forced to make a quick getaway after they were nearly caught red-handed.

Sharp-eyed Matthew Myatt is believed to have disturbed the burglars and prevented the salon from losing hundreds of pounds worth of stock and equipment.

The 40-year-old freelance photographer was walking around the town centre during the early hours of yesterday morning capturing images for his forthcoming exhibition at Eastleigh Museum.

He recalled how he turned into Wells Place and discovered hair and beauty boxes dropped all over the road and pavement. He estimated the value to be several hundreds of pounds.

At the back of the salon he stumbled across other property which included a CD player, a flat-screen monitor and a complete computer system with its printer attached.

Mr Myatt said: "I could not understand why there was so much stuff in the road which at first I thought was dumped rubbish.

"As I moved closer it was obvious that this was stock from a shop which still had all its price tags on.

"I then discovered the computer equipment outside Hair 2K in a neat pile as if it was about to be removed.

"It was at this point that I noticed that the rear door to the shop had been forced open and I immediately dialled 999 and the police arrived within what seemed to be a minute of my call."

Hairdressing salon owner Gina Melsome praised Mr Myatt for his swift action said: "Fair play to him and we were able to recover a lot of property."

The salon was closed yesterday as the premises were tidied up.