A teenager pretending to brandish a weapon under his shirt attempted to force a shop manager to hand over money.

CCTV cameras were used in the police hunt to catch the teenager who threatened Paul Busby, acting manager at E & R Goff Newsagents in Bridge Street, Abingdon, at 4.40pm on Tuesday last week.

Paul BusbyThe teenager had entered the shop with two other youths. He pretended to be holding a weapon under his shirt and demanded cash.

But Mr Busby refused to give in to the boy's demands and told him to leave the shop.

The boy stood his ground at first, but he and his accomplices fled when Mr Busby picked up the phone to call police, who arrived within minutes. They used CCTV pictures from the shop and around Abingdon town centre to track the offenders.

Mr Busby said: "The boy shoved something in my face. He had something concealed under his shirt and asked me for money.

"I asked him to leave but he didn't take me seriously until I picked up the phone. It's never happened to me before. I've been here for five years.

"I suppose I should have given him the cash as that's what you're trained to do. But I got very angry. Why should I have this 14-year-old telling me what to do?"

Mr Busby added that he was disappointed the police had not kept him informed of their investigation nor offered him advice on how to handle such situations in future.

Security has been stepped up at the shop. But Mr Busby said he felt police should do more to prevent shopkeepers in the town being put under threat. He added: "Until you are in that position of being held up, you don't know how you're going to react.

"We employ seven people here and everyone has mixed feelings about how you should react in that situation."

A 15-year-old boy has been arrested and released on police bail pending further enquiries.