Customer hit with a hammer in Wigan Spar

Two men, each wearing balaclavas, are said to have burst into a Spar branch, in Woodnook Road, Appley Bridge, just before 10pm on Sunday.

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One was armed with a hammer and the other with a crowbar.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: “They took a quantity of cash and started to leave.

“But as they were in the process of leaving one of the men has hit one of the customers with the hammer.”

Police have confirmed that the customer was not badly hurt, as a result of the attack.

The pair then fled the scene but it is not known which direction they ran off in.

Staff were also left shaken by the incident, which is the latest in a string of convenience store raids in the Wigan area.

An armed robbery took place at another Spar branch, this time in Whelley, again just before closing time, on Sunday, January 9.

Two masked men went into the store, armed with a knife and sledgejammer on this occasion and ordered the staff to stay behind the tills.

Cash was stolen from the register, alongside a large quantity of cigarettes.

Counter staff were then forced into a rear office, where more money was demanded. The pair later ran off towards Moore Street East and Gold’s Ice Cream Parlour.

Supermarket workers at the Asda stores in Atherton and Windermere Avenue, Leigh, were also hit by armed robberies, just before closing time, late last year.

Potential witnesses or anyone with information to give about either the Appley Bridge or Whelley robberies is being asked to contact police on the non-emergency number, 101, or the Crimestoppers hotline, in confidence on 0800 555 111.