TWO armed robbers left a cashier cowering in terror after threatening to kill her during a late night raid on an off-licence.

The shop assistant, 20, said she has been left ‘traumatised’ by the ordeal as she was cashing up at Bargain Booze, Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, at 9.50pm on Monday.

Police said two men armed with a hammer each and one with a crowbar, burst into the store and started ‘shouting and threatening’ the woman and demanding cash.

They jumped over the counter and told her to open the till.

The men emptied cash and an estimated £2,000 of cigarettes into a large recycling bag which they had brought with them.

The cashier, who wants to remain anonymous, said: “All the time this was happening one of them was lightly tapping me on the head with a hammer, saying, ‘I’m going to kill you’.

“And when they struggled to get into a second till they were really threatening me and I thought ‘if he hits me with that hammer I’m dead’.

She said she was sat in a corner with her head inside her fleece as the men ransacked the shop.

Fortunately a customer entered and the men ran off down Albert Street in the direction of Marble Street.

They dropped some of the cash and cigarettes in the street.

Shortly after the incident, a dark coloured Volkswagen car was seen travelling along Union Road towards Church and officers would like that driver to come forward so he can be eliminated from the inquiry.

Both men are white, in their 20s and had local accents. The first man is 6ft and skinny, the second man is 5’5”, slim with dark eyebrows.

DS Alan Davies, of Accrington CID said their ‘clearly volatile and threatening behaviour’ was intended to cause the cashier distress. He said an open mind was being kept whether the robbery was linked to other crimes in the area.