Thieves cut phone lines in raid

Burglars broke into a Bridgnorth auction room and made off with a "substantial" amount of cash. The thieves knocked a hole in the strong room after cutting phone lines.

The raid, at Nock Deighton salerooms in Tasley, happened between 6.30pm on Saturday and 6.30am today.

The burglary happened days after antiques expert David Dickinson visited to film his new ITV show, Dickinson's Real Deal, on Wednesday.

Senior partner Robin Nettleton said the offenders were probably looking for the takings from a sale of farm machinery which had taken place at the centre on Saturday.

He said it appeared the burglars knocked a hole in the strong room, which is inside the building and contains safes and computers, for someone to squeeze through and ransack the safes.

"It is clearly an organised gang that have done it, following the sale on Saturday," he said.

"We presume they were looking for any cash that may have been kept over the weekend. They have got away with some cash takings.

"They were concentrating on the strong room but we don't know exactly what has been taken yet.

"In the meantime we have no telephones which is highly inconvenient. We have a system in place to divert the phones to mobiles but we don't know how long it will take to restore telecommunications because it will be a major job."

Police spokeswoman Maria Hawkaluk said a "substantial amount" of money was taken.

Anyone with information can contact Bridgnorth police on 08457 444888 or the confidential Crimestoppers number 0800 555111.