Designer Store Cruise Ram-Raided

Ram-raiders today escaped with thousands of pounds worth of designer clothes after smashing their way into one of the most prestigious stores in Edinburgh. The hooded thieves backed into the front doors of the Cruise store on George Street before helping themselves to GBP5000 worth of shoes and clothes, including t-shirts and hooded tops.

The raiders drove a new-style silver Astra into the men's clothes store, while an accomplice kept a lookout outside on a yellow 125-style off-road motorcycle. Mary McGowne, a spokesperson for Cruise, which has a second store nearby on George Street, said staff had been left in shock by the raid. "It's the first time it's ever happened to us," she said. She said the glass top-to-bottom frontage of the store had been destroyed.

"We are all really shocked that someone would have the audacity to undertake such a raid. It's pretty brutal when you slam a vehicle into the front of a shop." She said the shop, which had never suffered any kind of break-in before, was covered by CCTV cameras.

Bill Furness, chief executive of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, said he hoped the incident would not lead to a wide-spread security panic among shop keepers. "It's not a phenomenon we've had to worry too much about before," he said. "You would expect electrical goods to be more attractive to thieves, but with the price of clothes now, it's just as profitable for them to steal from a shop like Cruise. The shop was expected to re-open later today.