VOLUNTEERS and customers of a charity shop are scared for their safety after someone has been entering the shop and slashing clothes with a knife.

The Guardian reported how the Cancer Research shop on Epping high street lost around £200 worth of stock last month after clothes were cut up and ruined.

Staff thought it would be a one off incident, but the attacker has continued to destroy their clothes on several more occasions.

Volunteer Assistant Manager Gordy Turner said: "You can't check and watch every customer who comes in but I'm trying to observe more.

"I saw a young girl, probably in her 20's, who was at the front of the shop and she made eye contact with me and then rushed out as soon as she saw me watching. She ran out of the shop, and then just after, we found another top that had been slashed. I don't know if it was her but I had my suspicions.

"Other Cancer Research shops in different areas have been targeted so it's not just us. All we can think of is that whoever is doing this thinks that because we are called Cancer Research we test on animals."

Rita Clift from Gants Hill is a regular customer of the shop and was shocked when she heard about the incident.

She said: "Whoever did this should be hung. It's disgusting. I can't believe it. It's like going into a church and destroying it. It's so terrible.

"We always come here because it's the best charity shop, and I can't understand why someone would do this."

Customer Jackie Leigh, 68 also from Gants Hill said: "I think it's evil that someone would do something in a shop that is trying to raise money for charity. Especially in the recession when everyone needs all the help they can get.

"I think it's more likely to be someone who has been let out of a mental hospital without supervision. It's someone who has a mental problem, no one else would do this."

Ildi Toth, 42 from Chigwell said: "I think it's terrible. People donate their clothes and bring them in for a good cause then someone cuts them all up. I don't understand these people who vandalise things that are in a charity shop."

Mr Turner said they will have to consider installing CCTV cameras if the problem does not stop.

He added: "I'm trying to be more vigilant but I don't like judging customers and watching them all the time. Cameras might be the only option if it keeps happening.

"If a customer saw them doing it and approached them, the implications from that are my biggest fear. I'm worried for customers and the elderly volunteers that someone is walking around the shop with a blade. We don't know what might happen.

"I think it's a woman doing it because all the clothes are from the women's section. If a guy was looking through womens clothes I would probably notice."