Ref. 14865/1POLICE quizzed dozens of motorists in Southwick as the hunt for two post office robbers stepped up a gear.

Uniform and plain clothed detectives set up roadblocks in the village on Friday morning exactly a week after its 43-year-old postmaster was bound and gagged during a terrifying raid on his store.

Detectives believe the robbery was planned and executed by professionals, who lay in wait for the postmaster to arrive, before bundling him to the floor and taping up his wrists and mouth.

Roadblocks were set up on Frome Road between 4.30am and 5.30am, in the hope motorists using the route on a daily basis may have seen the robbers waiting in a car or running from the scene, following the raid.

One potential witness told officers he saw three men stood close to the Farmhouse Inn at about 5.20am while a second woman heard the alarms ringing at Southwick Food Fare around the same time.

DC Nicky Littlefield said the roadblocks were the latest part of a bid to close the net on the robbers who could have struck before at a post office in Rode.

"We will do anything to try and detect this crime. It only takes one person to provide a little piece of information to give us a lead.

"We have checked out the two leads and they have helped us but it was not anything crucial. It will not take us a huge amount further in the inquiry.

"A lot of people drive that way to work every day but we could have missed shift workers so we are appealing for them to think back."

Mark Whitehouse, who took over the post office and supermarket last year, told officers he wanted to quit his job in the aftermath of the raid.

The two balaclava-clad robbers are described as wearing dark clothing and hooded jackets.

They are of medium to large build and between 5ft 9ins and 6ft tall.

Police believe they lay in wait for Mr Whitehouse to arrive and could have been sat in a car close to the Chantry Gardens store leading up to the 5.05am raid.

Both men are believed to have run back across Frome Road to a waiting car between 5.20am and 5.30am.

Wiltshire detectives are working with officers in Avon and Somerset to try and link the Southwick crime to other armed robberies in the area.