HUNDREDS of pounds worth of clothes on sale for charity were destroyed when someone entered a Cancer Research shop and slashed the items with a knife.

Volunteers at the shop on Epping High Street realised something was wrong when customers kept bringing items up to the till that were cut to pieces.

Mobile Manager Jean Green said: "It's very scary to know that someone is coming into the shop with a knife. Only a knife could have done this, it's quite vicious, we're not talking about a little tear, they are slashed right through.

"I noticed over the weekend that people were bringing up clothes with slashes in and one of the tops on the mannequin had also been cut up. I had put some things out the night before, some designer clothes, and by Saturday afternoon they were destroyed."

The team of volunteers at the shop held a fund raising event on Saturday (May 23) to raise money for the charity.

Volunteer Gordy Turner said: "The fun day was lovely but this obviously put a downer on that. We held the pink themed day to raise money, but then lost even more from this vandalism.

"There will be quite a lot of lost revenue because they have picked out the nice items."

Mrs Green added: "It might be someone who thinks because we are called Cancer Research that we do testing on animals, I don't know. I can't think why someone would come in and do this, and it's happened on more than just the one day.

"I noticed at the beginning of last week that some of the clothes were ruined, but didn't realise until the weekend that someone had done this on purpose.

"Unless we go through all the clothes, which is a huge task, we won't know how many items have been destroyed. So we are waiting for people to bring up clothes to find out. I would guess that so far we have lost about £200 worth. They seem to have targeted the more expensive items."

The shop has been plagued with bad luck recently, after hundreds of clothes were destroyed in a flood caused by a leak in the property upstairs.

Mrs Green said: "This is going to really affect us. We desperately need donations at the moment anyway because we've had a shortage recently, now we have even less. I don't know why someone would do this."

Police Sergeant for Epping Kevin Gray said: "I'm not aware of any other incidents where this has happened. It may well be something that has happened across Essex but it could also be an isolated incident.

"I don't know why someone would go into a charity shop and do this, but I'm sure we will be looking into it further."