A courageous Suffolk shop owner chased an armed robber out of his store after he scared him off with a hockey stick.

Pankaj Patel pulled out the hockey stick and confronted the robber after the offender entered his Spar store in Oulton Broad, near Lowestoft on Saturday night.

As this CCTV image clearly shows, the robber threatened Mr Patel with a large crow bar and then demanded he hand over money from the till.

The robber also tried hitting Mr Patel with his weapon.

However the robber, who wore a scarf over his face, was forced to flee empty handed after a determined Mr Patel bravely turned the tables on him.

Mr Patel told the robber to go away and when he refused to leave he shocked the armed offender by pulling out a hockey stick

As the robber fled the plucky shop owner threw the hockey stick at him and then chased him out of the Hall Road store in front of two stunned customers.

Mr Patel, who has owned the store for two years, was so determined to bring the robber to justice he drove around the area for half an hour trying to find him, but there was no sign of the offender.

Recalling Saturday's heroics Mr Patel said: 'I saw a man come in with a large crowbar. He tried hitting me with it and said something like 'Give me the money'.

'I told him to 'Go away'. I grabbed the hockey stick and tried to hit him with it. He started running back to the door and he still tried to hit me.

'I then threw the hockey stick at him and he ran down the street. I got in my car and tried to find him.

'The robber was shocked because he thought he would get the money easily from me, but I was never going to give any money to him.'

Mr Patel said when the police handed back his CCTV images he may put them on the YouTube internet site so people can see how the robber was chased off.

Last year, Mr Patel chased off a robber armed with a knife by pulling out a bottle on him.

Saturday's attempted armed robbery happened at about 8.15pm.

The robber was in his mid teens to early 20s, 5ft 7in with a slim to medium build. He was wearing a grey hooded top, grey bottoms and distinctive black and white trainers and had a black rucksack style bag.

The detective leading the investigaton, Det Insp Darrell Skuse said: 'Mr Patel's actions were very brave and this thwarted the robber.'

Anyone with information on the attempted robbery should call Lowestoft CID on 01986 835300.

anthony.carroll@archant.co.uk