The scene inside the Royal British Legion after the raid

A professional gang of thieves smashed through the wall of a Shropshire Royal British Legion club before drilling open the safe and escaping with hundreds of pounds.

Club bosses today said they believed the burglars had been tipped off as they knew the location of the safe and normally it would have been full.

The raid on the club in Audley Avenue, Newport, happened between 11.45pm on Sunday and 9am yesterday.

Legion treasurer Mary Whitehouse with the safe

After breaking into the building, the gang smashed through an internal wall before dragging the cast-iron safe back through the hole and using drilling equipment to force it open escaping with more than £600 and causing £2,000 damage.

Club treasurer Mary Whitehouse said the offenders knew what they were looking for and even used the club’s fire extinguisher while drilling into the safe to keep the metal cool and protect themselves from injury. She said targeting a club for ex-servicemen and women was “despicable”.

Officers are currently studying CCTV and have appealed for witnesses in a bid to track down the gang.

Chris Ammonds, spokesman for Telford police, said: “This appears to have been a very well organised burglary and the offenders appeared to know exactly what they were looking for and where to find it.

“It seems they had all the tools and equipment required to carry out this theft with them when they entered the building.”

Mrs Whitehouse added the club did not have a lot of money and any extra cash they had was used for the upkeep of the building.

“I think it happened at that time because they knew we bank on a Monday morning and maybe they thought the week’s cash was in there, but it wasn’t, that’s the only saving grace,” she said.

“They would have had to have known the safe was behind the wall. It’s just despicable that someone would do something like this.”

She added the gang went straight for the safe concealed behind the wall and did not touch the club’s fruit machine or bar.

Contact Telford police on 0300 333 3000.

By Jason Lavan