For the third time in five months, a Fraser Hart store, this time in a Milton Keynes shopping centre, has been targeted by an armed gang that escaped with a haul of watches.

The gang members were toting sledgehammers when they attacked the shop at about 10.15am last Friday morning. At Thecentre:mk Shopping Centre, according to a report in local newspaper The Milton Keynes Citizen.

Armed robbers escaped with a quantity of watches following the raid involving three robbers, which took place at 10.17am at the shop situated next to the Disney store in thecentre:mk.

Milton Keynes Police said sledgehammers had been used to break-in to the store.

A spokesman said officers are currently in pursuit of the robbers. One witness told the Citizen newspaper:

“The shop was filled with smoke and there was a guy with a black hoodie. There were lots of mums and toddlers there. It was really frightening. I ran away as fast as I could. A number of people were walking towards me so I was just shouting at them, ‘get out of there, get out of there. The smoke was as thick as milk, I couldn’t see how many people were in there. One woman was actually hiding and diving down on to the floor. Another guy was on the phone calling 999. I was about a metre and a half away from the shop so I got away as fast as I could.” Eye witness

The witness added that she believed one of the robbers had a gun, but police said they couldn’t confirm that. A spokesman from thecentre:mk told the Citizen that CCTV showed none of the robbers had carried guns.

In June, 27 year old Luke Doyle was arrested after failing to make a getaway from a Fraser Hart robbery in Bentalls in Kingston. In November, bikers mounted a daring raid on a Fraser Hart store in Brent Cross shopping centre.

Fraser Hart’s insurance premiums must be going through the roof as valuable watches continue to be stolen from their shop windows.