The hunt is on for Norfolk's latest 'graffiti' artists after a Wymondham shop was targeted in a growing craze known as yarn bombing.

Staff at the Myhills Pet and Garden store in Fairland Street were left surprised last week after two colourful knitted characters were placed in a wheelbarrow outside the shop and abandoned.

When they viewed the CCTV footage, they witnessed three respectable middle-aged women strolling up to the shop front with the figures, leaving them in the barrow, and fleeing the scene.

Roy Hagan, a director for Myhills, said he had no idea who had 'yarn bombed' the shop, but the two knitted figures were now proudly sitting in the shop window and would help raise funds for charity.

He added that they had started to sell tickets to raffle off the two new additions to raise money for East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH), which will end after the Easter period.

The incident happened at about 4.15pm last Thursday and were discovered by staff as they closed up for the day.

The figures are up to 2ft tall and have become the talk of the town.

Mr Hagan said: 'We have put the figures in our shop window with a little sign asking if anybody knows who is responsible, but as yet nobody has come forward. Unbeknown to the 'bombers', we actually captured them being planted on our CCTV.'

'There has been recent TV items including the BBC's One Show about it, so when they were found by a member of staff we guessed what had happened.'

Yarn bombing, also known as guerilla knitting, is believed to have been started in Texas, America, in 2005 as a way of brightening up dull public spaces and the underground movement has spread across the world.

Mr Hagan said they had come to the conclusion that the knitters' husbands may have been the inspiration behind the appearance of the two characters.

'We have had quite a few people asking and commenting on them and everyone has been so impressed by the detail and work put into them and we would love to know the story behind them.'

'One is obviously a golfer and the other is holding flowers and champagne with the initials RJ on his hat. They are too good not to have some good come from them,' he said.

Examples of guerilla knitting have also been spotted in Norwich where lamp-post and bus stop cosies have been discovered at the St Giles end of the Grapes Hill footbridge, in Chapelfield Gardens, and Unthank Road.