A female cashier was hurt in the incident and received hospital treatment after the offender jumped over the counter and attacked her. The woman was thrown to the floor before being stamped on, punched and kicked. The offender also threatened the woman with a syringe.

The male is described as having fair hair, wearing a blue jacket, black backpack, black scarf and black trainers. The offender left the scene on a black mountain bike.

Witness and CCTV enquiries are ongoing and officers will be in the area to provide reassurance to local businesses and the community.

Detective Inspector Gary Stratton said: "This was a particularly nasty and violent attack on a woman simply doing her job. I would appeal to anyone who may have witnessed this or saw anyone acting suspiciously around the time of the incident to come and speak to us. Behaviour like this is unacceptable and we will do our best to find the offender and bring him to justice.

“This has been a very frightening and upsetting ordeal for the injured woman and I would urge anyone to help us with any information they might have and I would particularly ask anyone with dashcam footage who might have been passing the garage at the time to come forward.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact @MerPolCC, call 101, or @CrimestoppersUK anonymously on 0800 555 111 quoting references 0727 of 2 February.