Newsagents in Shropshire fear they will end up in the firing line when thousands of county teenagers are banned from buying cigarettes on Monday.

The age at which people are allowed to buy tobacco is being raised from 16 to 18 by the Government.

But some front line shop staff say they will have to deal with angry youths as they start turning them away.

Donald Williams, from Tenbury News, Tenbury Wells, said: “The thing that worries us is that the emphasis will be on us, the shopkeepers, to implement the law and we may have irate youngsters saying they are old enough.

Raj Atwal, from Jubilee Stores in Orleton Lane, Wellington, said: “It will mean we will have to turn away more people and we get a mouthful. But the law is the law, so people will have to get used to it.”

And Dalbag Sidhu, who runs shops and Post Offices in High Ercall and Admaston, said: “I have been sent a pack by the cigarette company, and have put a notice up about it.”

Don Willbraham, from Willbraham’s Newagents in Prees, said the change would make it harder for shop assistants to tell if people are old enough to buy.

He added: “They will be a bit disgruntled but that’s just the way it goes.”

Crystal White, who works at S&W Worrall, in Mereside, Shrewsbury, said: “Because we are quite close to the college we have a lot of younger customers.”

Kevin Hawkins, director general of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Refusing to sell something on Monday that they could buy on Sunday could create conflict.”