A SHOPKEEPER thought balaclava-clad youths who punched him in the face and robbed his shop were harmless teenagers dressed in their winter woollies.

Manjinder Dhillon, 46, of Marlow Bottom Newsagents was forced to the floor and savagely kicked as the three attackers told him: "We will stab you."

Mr Dhillon had been organising the morning paper rounds at the shop on Monday, January 8, in Brucewood Parade, at 6am and had first thought the robbers were friends of his newspaper delivery boys.

He said: "A few of my newspaper boys wear things like the woolly balaclavas and I didn't think anything of it when they first came in.

"One of them just jumped on my back and said 'where is the safe?' and then held me down as another grabbed me by the throat."

He added that a third attacker went into the shop and was rifling through the till but only managed to escape with £30 in cash.

He said: "It was quite scary because they were rattling cutlery in the back and telling me they would stab me. They held me while I took them into the office and showed them that I didn't even keep a safe on the premises.

"They pushed me down on the floor and unplugged the CCTV while another went through to the shop and rifled through the till."

Mr Dhillon said he told the robbers he would open the till and they just 'hung' off his body as he struggled through to the shop where he pushed a panic button to alert police. The robbers then ran off but two of them went through the wrong door into another room and Mr Dhillon pinned one of the masked raiders to the floor but had to let go when another attacker pushed him.

The three men were then seen driving off in a blue Ford Escort saloon down Wiltshire Road, in Marlow Bottom.

One of the men is described as black, around 17-years-old, 5ft 8in, wearing dark clothing and a balaclava, a second youth was described as slim, around 14-years-old, 5ft and was wearing a dark jacket on his head.

The third robber was of slim build, around 5ft 9in, and wore dark coloured clothing and a balaclava.

If you have any information, call DC Jane McIntosh at High Wycombe CID on (01494) 465888.