BURGLARS dropped in through the roof of Wimborne Market in a daring night-time raid, making off with cash and a laptop.

Once inside, they used drills to de-activate the alarms and plunder cash stores, before whitewashing the scene with bleach to cover their tracks.

Ed George, a manager at the family-run riverside market, in Station Road, says he’s stunned by the professional nature of the attack.

He said: “They cut through the roof right where the alarm was – anywhere else and it would have gone off so it looks like a well-planned mission.

“They took what they could find and moved into the café, looked through the till and trashed the place.”

A Perspex screen at the end of one of the market halls was also broken in the attack overnight last Friday, so workers arrived to scenes of chaos ahead of the busy Saturday morning market.

“It looks very organised and professional,” Ed said. “They must have been there a few hours, it doesn’t look like the work of a bunch of teenagers.

“It’s just amazing no-one heard all the noise.”

Staff managed to run the new Saturday auction and the usual market and car boot sale but it was hectic, he added.

Broken equipment has been replaced and the market is open as usual.

A police spokesman said they were informed at 6.38am on March 12 of a burglary at Wimborne Market and that a quantity of cash had been taken.