Burglars raided a popular sandwich shop and stole a safe containing £2,000 in cash leaving the owner devastated.

Catherine Daley said it will take The Butty Bar a year to recover following the break in. The 48-year-old mum-of three said: “All the wages of the three girls who work part-time were taken as well as money for the bills and two lots of rent money.

“It’s devastating and horrible to think someone believes that they have the right to do this.

“Someone must have targeted us specifically because when I came in the morning after nothing else had even been moved apart from the safe which had been ripped out.”

Catherine, who has run the shop for 11 years, added: “It’s going to take me almost a year to build that money up again.

“Business is quite slow and the only thing keeping me afloat is the outside catering I do.

“It’s awful and has affected all my family.

“I don’t sleep because of the worry and my husband takes me to work every morning now.”

PC Andrew Kelley described how the raiders had  jumped a wall before breaking in through the kitchen windows at the back of the shop on Burnley Road, Accrington, between 4.30am and 7am on July 7.

He said: “In order to gain entry, they removed the window grilles which were bolted to the wall, climbed through the top window into the kitchen area and then removed the safe and its fitting which were also bolted to the wall.”

Anyone with any information can contact police on 08451 25 35 45 or call  Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.