"We knew it would be our turn sooner or later."That was the verdict from one shocked Grundisburgh resident waking up this morning to the realisation that following a raid on their post office, all Suffolk villages are in the firing line for raiders.

"We knew it would be our turn sooner or later."

That was the verdict from one shocked Grundisburgh resident waking up this morning to the realisation that following a raid on their post office, all Suffolk villages are in the firing line for raiders.

Police are now hunting the man who carried out the raid at 3.50pm yesterday.

No weapon was seen, but the female member of staff at the post office was forced to hand over an undisclosed sum of money.

Today the post office, which has been in the same hands for 21 years, was open for business.

An assistant from the Olde Forge Stores 100 yards from the post office, who thinks she served the raider just minutes before he struck, said: "It was spooky when he came into the shop I knew he wasn't local. It was raining but he was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap.

"The thing that struck me most was his tan. He asked for a packet of green cigarette papers at 3.45pm and left."

Perhaps put off by two CCTV cameras fixed on the store's till, the raider tried his luck elsewhere making his way to the post office.

"I don't think he was on his own because he would not have made off on foot, but I did not see anyone else with him," said the assistant.

Together with the post office worker she helped police, who where out in Grundisburgh with dogs in the evening with the helicopter circling overhead, come up with a description.

"Police asked me if he had any tattoos and what he was wearing. He did not have an accent when he spoke."

The raider is also described as being 5ft 10ins, white, of slim build, and in his late 20s.

This morning other Grundisburgh residents described the shocking aftermath of the raid.

Yvette Gladden, who has lived in the village more than 20 years, said: "You don't expect this sort of thing to happen here. It's a very quiet small knit community."

The female assistant held up in the raid was today reported to be shocked and shaken.

Grundisburgh marks the seventh rural post office raid in Suffolk in less than a year.

Little Stonham and Hacheston post offices were both struck twice in a matter of months.

Timeline

May 23 – Two men rob Hacheston post office at knifepoint

January 31 – Raiders rob Hacheston while carrying a weapon concealed in a plastic bag.

November 30 – Little Stonham post office targeted by raiders for the second time in less than a month

November 5 – Pakenham postmaster struck over the head with a handgun in a robbery

November 2 – Postmistress Sarah Buttle left traumatised after the first raid at Little Stonham

September 25 – Masked men armed with a shotgun and a sledgehammer raid Cavendish post office