TWO women who stayed calm in the face of an armed raider have been praised by the owner of an off licence and detectives investigating the crime.

On Monday evening, the shop assistants were confronted by a masked gunman in a general dealer's store, in The Avenue, in Seaham.

Brandishing what was believed to have been an imitation handgun, the raider threatened the staff and demanded cash.

The women refused to hand over any money and, instead, quickly moved into a stock room where they locked themselves in.

The would-be thief tried to open the till, but eventually fled empty-handed.

Yesterday, John Carrick, the owner of the family business, said he was full of admiration for the two staff members for remaining so calm in extremely difficult circumstances.

He said: "I always said if anyone came in demanding money that they should think about their own safety first and should get themselves out of danger - that is exactly what they did, I can't praise them highly enough.''

One of the officers investigating the incident, Detective Constable Ged Fairclough, said the two assistants' reactions had been "exemplary'' he said: "They remained remarkably cool throughout the incident and did everything right.''

The raider was described as in his late teens or early twenties and between 5ft 8ins and 5ft 10ins, wearing a dark zip-up top pulled over his mouth and nose and a grey woolly hat pulled down over his head