Staff at a Southampton shop have been left shaken after thieves broke in on Tuesday morning.

A “large number” of vapes were stolen from Sholing Video following the burglary in the early hours.

The shop in St Monica Road was cordoned off by police and remained closed all day yesterday.

Daniel Scammell, 37, who works at the store, told the Echo: “I live about 20 seconds away and I got a call from the owner's mum to head down there at 6am.

“Police were already on the scene by that point. From what we can see on CCTV, five people came to the store in two vehicles – one of which was a white transit van – I’m not sure about the other one.

“They then used a crowbar to break the door, got inside and went straight for the vapes section of the store and loaded as many of the products as they could into bags.

“As they left, they were then pursued by police vehicles towards Botany Bay Road.”

Daily Echo:

READ MORE: Woman released after stabbing in Ocean Village flat

Mr Scammell added: “The worst part is the clean-up.

“Staff are upset and obviously we’re going to have to close for a short time which is a loss of income.

“We just want to get back to normal as soon as we can but it’s about opening as safely as possible rather than as soon as possible.

“The police are doing their investigation and we’d like to thank everyone for their concern.”

Daily Echo:

In a statement, a spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary told the Echo: “We received a report shortly before 4.30am today (Tuesday, September 12) that entry had been forced to the Sholing Video store on St Monica Road.

“A large number of vapes were taken. No-one was injured.

“Officers attended the scene and have seized a vehicle left outside the store, which was reported stolen from Curdridge in July.

“An investigation into this incident is underway and we remain in the area today conducting enquiries.”

In a statement on their Facebook page, Sholing Video stated: “Due to a break-in early this (Tuesday) morning, until such time, the sweet side and Sholing Vapes will be closed.

“We will update this page once we are in a position to re-open.”