A gang which threatened staff in a robbery at a Shoreham sub-post office may have targeted a travel agent's just hours earlier.

Three men stole an undisclosed amount of cash after threatening staff at the sub-post office at Dillons newsagent's in Upper Shoreham Road at 11.30am yesterday.

It followed a robbery at Travel Care, Southwick Square, Southwick, at 9am when three men wearing balaclavas were seen running from the travel agent's. They had locked staff in a kitchen and stolen cash from a safe.

The men had broken in by forcing a rear window. As two female members of staff arrived for work, they opened an internal door to be confronted by the men, one of whom had a knife.

After taking the money, they drove off in a white Honda coup, which headed towards Old Shoreham Road.

The first man was white, 5ft 10in, and wearing a maroon long-sleeved jacket with zip-up front and a yellow motif on the left, near the waist.

The second suspect was white and possibly wearing a navy denim jacket and jogging bottoms with light coloured trainers.

The third man is described only as being shorter than the other two.

Detective Sergeant David Payne said: "At the moment we are keeping an open mind about a possible link between the two incidents."

Staff at the post office said they did not want to comment after talking to police about their ordeal.

Police appealed for a middle-aged man with a bike who may have seen the post office raid to contact them.