A 58-year-old woman chased a gang of youths after they stole from her store because she is sick of repeated shoplifting.

Lyn Wilson is the store manager of Boots in Queensway, Petts Wood, and says she and her staff are fed up because they “get shoplifters at least once a day”.

So when four teenagers swiped £130 of toiletries from a shelf, she chased them more than 300 metres through an alleyway parallel to Queensway and out onto Franks Wood Avenue, where they jumped onto a bus.

But Mrs Wilson did not give up there.

She ran into the road to stop the bus and then jumped aboard, at which point the teenagers climbed out of the emergency exit and sprinted up the road, where they escaped on another bus.

Mrs Wilson said: “It was just instinct to chase after the youths. I did not want to let them get away with stealing from the shop.”

Police arrived on the scene quickly and both Mrs Wilson and her colleague 47-year-old Karen Gulten gave descriptions of the four youths, who were three white males and one black male aged between 16 and 18.

The description was circulated to officers across the borough but no arrests have been made yet.

Officers are examining CCTV footage from the two buses in an effort to identify the youths, as the cameras in Boots did not record them.

Mrs Wilson says Petts Wood attracts shoplifters because there are no barriers at the train station and lots of bus stops, making it easy for thieves to escape quickly.

But she says the shops and police are working together to cut down on the number of thefts, saying: “All the shops have CCTV cameras and the police regularly patrol the area, which obviously does put people off trying to steal.”

Anyone with information that may help the investigation can call Bromley police on 01689 891212 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.