MASKED men Tasered a cash delivery guard during a failed daylight raid at a Brentwood post office.
The owner of A & S News has this week spoken of her terror as three men attempted to steal money from the guard inside her Eastham Crescent business at about 11am on Thursday last week.
Sivasankari Sathiyamoorthy was in the shop serving customers when two members of the gang, wearing gloves, balaclavas and overalls, stormed in after the guard and attacked him with what she described as a high-voltage Taser stun gun.
The assailant and a baseball bat-wielding accomplice ran out and off with a third member of the gang who had been blocking the door during the attack.
The man holding the Taser has been described as about 5ft 6in tall, while his accomplice with the baseball bat is about 6ft 2in tall.
Mrs Sathiyamoorthy, 40, who has run the shop with husband Sinnarasa, 52, since 2008, said: "It was really scary. This is the first time that anything like this has happened to me and my husband wasn't there.
"You just don't expect to see this sort of thing here."
The guard had already delivered one cash box and had returned with a second when the drama unfolded. Mrs Sathiyamoorthy said. "When he came back in with the second box two of the men came in. I couldn't see very much but he was pushing the guy and then he attacked him with a Taser gun.
"There was a lot of noise and confusion but he ordered him to open the box, which he refused to do, and then the gang ran out and away."
Anjna Sethi, who was behind the post office counter when the attack took place, said: "I had been checking in the first box so I didn't see exactly what had happened, but there was a lot of noise and one of the customers was screaming.
"I suppose about five or six seconds later the gang ran out.
"The guard had fallen to the floor and was badly shaken."
The 55-year-old, who has worked in the shop for eight years, added: "I've experienced seven or eight raids while I was working in Harold Park but never here before."
The gang was last seeing running off towards Broadwalk South. A wide search of the area was carried out by police but there was no trace of the men.
The 30-year-old security guard, from Dagenham, was treated at the scene by paramedics, but did not require any hospital treatment.
Investigating officer Detective Constable Leanne Ford said: "As well as appealing for witnesses to the actual robbery, we're keen to hear from people who saw these two men run off towards Broadwalk South.
"They may have had a getaway vehicle in which case they probably would have gone down Hanging Hill Lane or along the A128 at speed, thereby attracting the attention of passing motorists."
Enquiries are continuing and any witnesses who have not yet spoken to police should call detectives at Basildon CID on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
It is not the first time that a robbery has taken place at the shop.
A knife-wielding robber made off with £1,300 in cash and £3,000 of cigarettes after a raid in 2007 on the newsagents.
In 1988 two men were jailed for 12 years and 13 years after hijacking a postal security van and its two guards in Eastham Crescent.
