A £2,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the arrest of a violent masked robber.

Petrol station manager Graham North has been praised for fighting off the raider at 7am, on Sunday at the Walverden Service Station, in Netherfield Road, Nelson.

Now Total Service Stations have offered the reward to try and trap the robber, who used a rubber cosh to assault Mr North.

He had gone to work early to sort out the Sunday papers and as he carried them inside a man wearing dark clothing hit him with the cosh and forced him into the shop.

There was a struggle and Mr North fled the shop by the fire escape.

The robber then bolted, leaving Mr North free to hit the panic button.

Ian Woodcock, area manager for Total Service Stations in Lancashire, said: "The store manager followed the correct procedure.

"He made sure he was safe. He didn't do anything to alarm or intimidate the robber and he raised the alarm at the earliest possibility.

"It could have been a lot worse.

"As a result we are offering the £2,000 reward, in conjunction with Crimestoppers, for any information which leads to an arrest or conviction."

Mr Woodcock said the company was also analysing CCTV footage. Mr North, who has run the service station for seven years, re-counted his struggle with the robber. He tried to hit him with a fire extinguisher and then threw a pair of ladders at him as he tried to escape.

He said: "It was quite traumatic and it's been going through my mind ever since what I could have done differently.

"I was lucky he didn't have a knife or anything. At first I thought he might have but when he didn't pull it out I took a gamble on going for the fire extinguisher. I've got a gash to my thumb and a broken tooth but apart from that I'm fine."

The robber was slim build and approximately 5ft 8ins tall.

DC Ian Taylor and DC Peter Greenwood at Nelson CID are heading the police investigation. Anyone with any information should call 0800 555 111 or 01282 472646.