Robbers burst into a pub after closing time, threatened the landlord with a chef's knife and stole more than £4,000.

Two men carrying a hammer and a knife held up The Farmers in Lewes Road, Scaynes Hill, near Haywards Heath, at 12.55am on Monday.

Two black men wearing balaclavas walked in and demanded money as landlord Peter Smith closed up after a karaoke session.

Mr Smith said: "It had been a superb night. The pub had been packed and I was literally closing up when I was stopped in the porchway by a man with a chef's knife saying, 'Give me your money'.

"We were told to all lie on the floor and one of the men began making threats and demanding to know where we kept our cash.

"It is very scary when somebody is pointing a knife at you but I managed to keep calm and told them if they let me get up I would show them where the safe was. I did, and they cleaned it out.

"Eveything happened so quickly. They were literally in and out in a few minutes. There were four of us still in the pub including my wife Peta, and everyone did as they were told, didn't panic and tried to keep control of the situation.

"We opened up the next morning as usual. Though nothing like this had ever happened to us before, my wife and I have been in the pub trade for years and are used to handling difficult situations. We were not going to let two masked yobs interfere with our business any more than they already had.

"Luckily we have a busy restaurant and a lot of people pay by credit card, or we could have lost a lot more."

The offenders fled to a vehicle after the robbery. Nobody was injured.

The first offender was 6ft tall, heavily built and wore a dark baggy shell suit, trainers and dark gloves.

The second was clean shaven, in his mid 20s, 5ft 10in tall and slim. He wore dark clothing, dark glasses and white trainers.

Detective Constable Joanne Hawkins said: "We would like to talk to people who were visiting the pub that evening and may have noticed anything or anyone suspicious.

"We also want to talk to people who were driving by the pub and also may have seen something suspicious, particularly anyone seen waiting round in a car."