POLICE are still hunting three armed robbers who brandished a sledge hammer and a knife, terrifying Post Office staff and a customer in Leigh.

The masked men burst into Westleigh Post Office, on Westleigh Lane, and confronted the shop's owner Jayprakash Chauhan.

They smashed the counter screen and grabbed cash and some of the store's stock, including, Mr Chauhan believes, a number of postal orders.

Mr Chauhan, 48, was worried about his wife, Mira, 44, and son Adarsh, 19, who were at the back of the shop.

He had been serving a customer at the time of the attack - the second to hit the post office in the last ten months following a similar incident last August.

Mr Chauhan said: "It was a terrifying experience. We had stepped up security since the last attack but it does not seem to deter these people. They just wore very good masks so it was impossible to see who they were."

The robbers, he said, did not threaten himself and the other people in the shop, telling them instead to get out of the way to avoid being hurt.

But Mr Chauhan said it did not make the experience any easier, adding: "The police didn't catch the ones who committed the first offence last year so I don't hold out much hope about them doing anything this time."