Burglars climbed through the skylight of a commercial garage and then dropped 40ft to the ground before ram-raiding their way out in a Ford Fiesta.

The thieves climbed to the top of Julian's garage in Station Road, Didcot, and then lowered themselves to the floor before making their getaway in a £5,500 Ford Fiesta Azura saloon, which they used as a battering ram to break down metal shutters, following the break-in during the early hours of Thursday morning.

Sales manager Harvey St-Clair said: "It sounds like a scene from the film Mission Impossible. I don't know how they got down from the skylight but it's at least 40ft from the roof to the ground.

"I've been here 25 years and I have never seen anything like it. They might have jumped down on to the internal stores roof to reach the ground which would have activated the alarm system.

"Then they probably panicked and decided to use one of the vehicles to ram their way out. The car that was stolen has quite a tough black bumper so I don't know how badly damaged it will be."

Mr St-Clair added that thieves broke into the garage through the skylight on one previous occasion and a full security review was now taking place. The theft was discovered by staff when they arrived for work on Thursday morning. Thames Valley police spokesman Janet Malcolmson said: "It's a fairly unusual way to steal a car. We believe it may have suffered some damage to the bonnet following the impact with the metal shutters.

"If anyone sees a white Ford Fiesta Azura which has suffered damage to the front end then we would like them to contact us.

"If thieves were trying to steal the car for re-sale this is a pretty silly way to go about it."

Anyone with information should telephone police on 01235 776521.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.