Thieves drilled a huge hole through a wall in a Marlborough shop so they could crawl in and carry out a raid on the neighbouring WH Smiths.

The heist was discovered today.

They broke into the former Edinburgh Woollen Mill store yesterday and drilled two holes to get into the store on the high street.

New owner Mark Bury, who is renovating the former clothes shop said the burglary must have been planned well in advance.

The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald:

"You can see they knew where to drill through," he said.  "They obviously got it wrong the first time, as they drilled through the fire place."

The second hole is about three feet high, and cuts through a small opening from the Woollen Mill shop wall, through a partition wall, and then through breeze blocks to access the WH Smiths side.

"I think they knew what they were after," said Mark, who believes they managed to get into his building by jimmying doors, and coming through the top fire escapes of the property.

"I'm told that a lot of cigarettes were taken.  They went through all the tools on site here, but it looks like most of those are still here, so obviously they had a target in mind."

The floor of the Woollen Mill rear room is covered in bricks and debris from the drilling.

Police investigators are still at the scene.