ARMED raiders who fired shots during a robbery at Crewe sorting office may have carried out a practice run the week before, police have revealed.

The raid, which took place at the office in Weston Road last Wednesday, saw a masked foursome escape with 19 bags of priority mail.

Royal Mail have offered a £5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Crewe police are looking to trace the movements of the three vehicles used in the robbery after one car was spotted in Crewe Green on the previous Friday.

An "M" registered dark blue Volvo estate, fitting the description of the getaway car, was sighted racing along the proposed escape route on August 28.

Sergeant Martin Baker said he was anxious to contact two drivers who may have seen the robbers on the dry run at the junction of Sydney Road and Hungerford Road.

"It is unlikely that they would have been wearing balaclava masks and we want to know if anyone saw them," he said.

"There must have been quite a lot of activity from this gang in the past week or so and the vehicles have got to have been stored somewhere."

A faded "post office red" Freight Rover Sherpa van, which was also used in the robbery, was in the Sydney Road area on the same night while Crewe Alexandra played against Bradford City.

"We have only had one witness come forward so far and it's a fair assumption the streets would have been fairly quiet," he said.

"But it was at around 9 o'clock on a Friday evening so there must have been people about."

The attack happened at 8.50pm when the Volvo and a K-registered Burgundy Cavalier Diplomat, stolen from Crewe the week before, crashed through the office gates and into the yard.

The robbers, all dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, looted an armoured mail van and escaped in the Volvo down Weston Road, driving the wrong way around a roundabout and onto Crewe Road.

After abandoning the vehicle in the Sydney Area, they made off with the mail in the Sherpa van, which had blacked out windows.

Sergeant Baker said: "With the amount of police activity in the area, it is unlikely that their final destination has been in this division.

"They are obviously very professional and very ruthless because, although they didn't physically hurt anybody, the mental scars are going to be with them for a long time."

Anyone with information should call Crewe Police on 01270 500222 and quote incident number 206.

The police are anxious to hear from anyone who may have seen this red van with blacked out windows.

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