Traffic is held on the Maidstone-bound A249, between Grovehurst and Bobbing junctions, as police search for evidence

by Gemma Constable and Lewis Dyson

timesguardian@thekmgroup.co.uk

Police are still hunting two men following a raid on a Sheerness town centre store.

Yasotharan Rajadurai was behind the till at European Foods when he heard shouting out the front of the shop at around 4pm yesterday.

The 28-year-old said the delivery driver, Sivarajeevan Rajaratnam, had noticed a white van park further up the road in front of his vehicle and a man walking past watching what he was doing.

When he went into the shop, two men - one wearing a yellow shirt - had approached the van and stole several pallets of cigarettes.

Mr Rajadurai, originally from Sri Lanka, said: "He [Sivarajeevan] was chasing after them and shouting 'Oi! Oi!'. I ran out because I thought somebody had taken something because he does not shout normally so the chances were we were being robbed."

Mr Rajaratnam, 25, was pushed into the road and suffered an injury to his shoulder. The robbers jumped into their van, driven by another man, and headed off the Island.

Police chased it from Sheerness to the A249, where the cigarettes were dumped. The van stopped at the Bobbing services and the three men jumped out .

A police helicopter was called in to search for the men and a 30-year-old man, from Enfield, Middlesex, was stopped on the A2 and arrested on suspicion of robbery.

There was traffic chaos on the A249, which was closed in the Maidstone-bound carriage until 5pm while officers searched for the cigarettes. A police spokesman said all the cigarettes, estimated to be about 45 packs, had been found.

The man wearing the yellow shirt had brown hair and was described as being quite tall. The other raider was heavy-set, balding and was wearing a black T-shirt.

Motorist Jo Annis, who was stuck for 20 minutes in stationary traffic, said: "There was a helicopter flying around and everyone was getting out of their cars and trying to see ahead."

• Anyone with information can contact police on 01622 690690 or Kent Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 quoting cad log 19-0854