A ROBBER armed with two knives held up a Burnley convenience store in a terrifying raid.

Two workers at the Spar in Rosehill were getting ready to close the shop when the masked raider burst in.

Kath Cocker, 59, said she feared the worst as the hooded thug pointed the weapons at her co-worker and snatched several hundred pounds from the till.

Mrs Cocker, who has worked at the shop for four years, said: "I could see how close the knife was to my colleague behind the till. I went into shock mode and feared the worst."

Lancashire police have issued a CCTV image of the raider, who they believe had waited outside for almost two hours before the attack.

Mrs Cocker was working with her colleague, a student in his 20s, who was too upset to speak yesterday, when the raider walked in.

She said: “I was on the shop floor and we had just finished locking up the scratchcards. It had been a fairly normal night.

“I heard the doorbell ring then a clink and all of a sudden he threw the bag over the counter and filled it with money.

“The robber was quite calm. It was eerie. It was all over in a minute and it left me really shocked.

“I gave a statement to the police and they told me not to come in for a week but I just wanted to carry on as normal.

“If I’d taken time off I’d never come back.

"It does frighten me that he’s still out there and I’m still a bit nervous about my next Thursday night shift but I just want to carry on.”

The offender, described as a white man of large build, was wearing a black padded body-warmer with its hood up and covered his face with a scarf.

Donald Wells, who has owned the shop for 10 years, said counselling was available to the two members of staff affected by the incident.

Mr Wells, 59, said: “The person has hung around for two hours on-and-off, passing the shop at least eight times.

“I spent two hours the following morning looking at the CCTV. It’s worrying that he’s got away with this.

“There are dangerous people out there and all it takes is one member of staff to intervene or a customer to tackle the robber and this could have been much worse.

“Thankfully both members of staff are unharmed but it was a real shock to the system for them.

“People going about their day job don’t expect their lives to flash before their eyes.”

Police said he fled down Manchester Road towards Burnley town centre after the robbery, which happened just before 10pm last Thursday.

DC Dave Greenwood, from Pennine CID, said: “We believe the man responsible was loitering outside the shop for up to two hours before committing the robbery, so although there were no customers in the shop at the time of the offence, I would like to speak with anyone that thinks they may have seen the man pictured in the CCTV to come forward.

“Fortunately nobody was hurt but this is clearly a serious offence and an investigation is underway to catch the man responsible. Anyone with any information that could assist should contact me on 101.”