A KNIFEMAN is being hunted by police after a raid on a newsagents in Newton Aycliffe.

Police attended the incident at the McColl’s shop, in Washington Crescent, at about 2pm, yesterday, after reports that a man wearing a type of balaclava had stormed the premises with a large, broad-bladed knife.

The man demanded the staff open the till and when they refused he jumped over the counter and made off with some cigarettes.

He is described as white, of slim build and about 5ft 7ins tall.

He also had cropped ginger hair and covered his face with a green balaclava.

No one was hurt in the incident but there were reports that a police helicopter was hovering overhead for more than an hour as police cars “swarmed” the area.

Neighbourhood Inspector for Bishop Auckland, Martin Peace, said: “CID are making quite a number of enquiries.

“This crime is still very rare. It’s not normally the sort of crime we would witness and people are quite safe, we do have a team of detectives working on it.”

Aycliffe Town Mayor, Wendy Hillary, said the incident was shocking for the area.

“It’s just totally out of the norm for this area and we are normally quite peaceful round here so it’s really out of the blue,” she said.

“I would hope that the police will be on the ball, they usually are round here because we go to the PACT groups and there’s interaction between the police and residents so I would expect that it will be resolved quite shortly.

“It’s just the people involved that I’m shocked for, I’m just hoping they will recover, particularly at this time of year – it’s an awful thing for them.”

Fellow town councillor, John Clark, added: “It’s quite worrying and obviously any armed robbery is very serious.”

McColl’s declined to comment on the incident.

Witnesses should call the police on 101.