Thieves ransacked a quiet village shop during the night to steal thousands of packets of cigarettes and alcohol.

Police are investigating the break-in at ACME Food and Wine in Forge Lane, Higham after it was reported this morning.

Cigarettes, alcohol and £1,000 from a safe were taken during the raid in which CCTV was disabled and recording equipment swiped.

Owner Raji Soruban said her husband Pat was "shocked" and "very upset" when he opened the shop to find the damage.

She said: "It looks like it was well planned. We are going to have to replace the back door but the cameras were turned away.

"The alarm was triggered at 12.35am but we couldn't see anything on our CCTV.

"We are shocked and my husband is very, very upset. We have been here 12 years and we have never had any problems whatsoever.

"We never expected this to happen. Next week we were due to take the kids to Dubai on holiday so this is the last thing we needed."

A Higham resident, who asked not to be named, said he believes it was a professional job.

He said: "Hopefully someone in the houses will have CCTV which might show something.

"It's hard enough to make a living without someone going in and doing this. The owners have been in the village for years and are lovely people."

A police spokeswoman confirmed the force had received a report that a quantity of alcohol and cigarettes had been stolen.

If you have any information on the raid contact police on 101.