WILKO staff members had a nasty shock when they turned up for work this morning and discovered that the Stroud shop had been broken into overnight.

Although the store was closed for nearly 6 hours while a police forensics team search the crime scene for evidence, Wilko's is now open for business again.

Up until around 2pm today signs on the doors of the popular hardware and homeware store in Merrywalks Retail Centre said: “Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control we are unable to open this morning".

We have contacted Gloucestershire Police and Wilko head office for more information.