Businesses in Ipswich town centre are expecting huge losses after a nine hour police incident forced their shops to close.
At 4.30am on Thursday, Suffolk police responded to reports a man had broken into Carats Jewellers, in Buttermarket, and found his way to the roof of the building.
A cordon remained in place until the man was detained at around 1.40pm.
During that time businesses in Buttermarket, Tavern Street, Princess Street, Dial Lane and Thoroughfare remained closed.
Jamal Iqbal, from A Phone Shop in Tavern Street, did open once the cordon was lifted and said that he expects the businesses to have lost a lot of money.
He said: "It is weird because, on one hand, you want everyone to be safe and sound, and I commend the police on doing that well today, but the cordon just meant that many businesses like ours could not open.
"We could only open after lunch, so for the better part of the day no one bought anything from us."
Similarly, a shopkeeper of a store on Buttermarket said: "We often get our peak hour of trade at lunch, because we close by 4 o'clock in the evening.
"But today we got none of that, so at some level we were also thinking if it would be worth us opening today at all, or just be shut and not waste money on electricity."
Many businesses in Thoroughfare and Dial Lane did take that decision and did not open their doors at all for the day.
Ann Jones, 52, works at a newsagents' between Tavern Street and Buttermarket and had not been able to get to her place of work since 6.50am.
She came back every 30 minutes, and eventually, at 1pm, she gave up and decided that the store would not be open that day.
She said: "At this point, there is no reason for me to open the store today. We can get back to it tomorrow and hope for the best."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson from Buttermarket Centre said the cordon has blocked their main entrances and prevented Jacey's Cafe and Twist and Shout from opening.
They added: "It is certainly causing some disruption to all and will cost our business thousands in lost sales."
Following the suspect being detained by the police Carats Jewellers, where it was first reported that the man had attempted to break into, and Superdrug, on whose roof he sat negotiating with with police, continued to remain closed.
Additionally, stalls of Ipswich markets that would be placed within the cordoned-off area did not open in the town centre either.
On Thursday morning, a number of people had also come from neighbouring villages to bank in town.
James Rhodes, 37, had travelled from Martlesham to the town centre so that he could get to NatWest Bank.
He said: "I have been here since 9am. It's been three hours and nothing has happened.
"I just need to do some essential work at the bank and go home, but this is taking forever."
Meanwhile, Julie had a similar story of travelling from Copdock to visit HSBC.
After the cordon was lifted by the police, the banks opened their doors and it was business as usual for them.
A spokesman for Suffolk police added: "Police would like to thank local businesses and the public for their patience and understanding."
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