ARMED ROBBERS raided a jewellery shop with a handgun and smashed open display cabinets before fleeing in a getaway car.

Broadstone was busy with shoppers yesterday morning when a Chrysler Voyager vehicle pulled up outside the Forum Jewellers family business and four people jumped out wearing balaclavas.

Workers and shoppers heard the sound of smashing glass coming from the shop on the Broadway before the robbers fled in the Chrysler with a bag and dumped the vehicle in a nearby road.

Witnesses said the first police car arrived in less than a minute and officers cordoned off the shop and the service road outside.

The force helicopter was scrambled and seen overhead as a forensics team arrived to comb the scene for clues amongst the smashed glass and jewellery.

Stunned staff were led to the nearby Blackwater Stream pub to recover and it is understood none of them were injured.

Hannah Usher was at work at Goadsby estate agents when she saw the robbers in black balaclavas and called to her colleagues: “I think the jeweller’s is being robbed”.

“They caught my eye because they were in black,” she said.

“It was four people and they left with a bag and did a wheelspin as they went off.”

Elsa Tily was at work at the Age UK charity shop when she heard the raid.

She said: “I was serving and I heard glass breaking and saw a car rush off.”

Up to six members of staff are believed to have been working at the shop yesterday morning when the robbers arrived.

They went to the Blackwater Stream Wetherspoon pub to recover afterwards and said one of the robbers had a handgun during their ordeal.

Police cordoned off the shop and scenes of crimes officers combed the scene as the police helicopter was seen overhead.

Broadstone resident Helen Williams was walking to the shops when she saw the Chrysler being checked over by police in Lytham Road, after being dumped.

“I thought it must be something serious when I saw the police there,” she said.

Witnesses said they saw three men and a woman jump out of the Chrysler with a bag and head up a track from Lytham Road.

Police said they then jumped into a pale blue car similar in size to a Ford Fiesta in Wallace Road, before heading towards the Darby’s Corner roundabout.

A force spokesman said the robbery happened at 10.55am yesterday. He said four people entered the premises but that in total four men and one woman left the scene.

DS Julie Dransfield, of Bournemouth and Poole CID, said it was “lucky no one was hurt but naturally the staff are very shocked”.

She wants to speak to anyone who witnessed the robbery, saw anything suspicious or saw any vehicle the offenders used.

Witnesses and anyone with information can call Dorset Police on 101.