A woman is warning others to be careful after someone attempted to steal her purse.

The lady, who did not want to be named, was walking out of the toilets in the East of England Co Operative supermarket, in Solar, Weaver’s Court, Halstead, when she noticed something wasn’t quite right.

The Halstead resident said: “A lady followed me into the Co-op toilet right behind me.

“When I was coming out, she was right behind me again and when I turned to look at her, my purse fell on floor.

“My bag was zipped up on the way into the toilets.

“She grabbed my purse from the floor, opened it and told me look if anything was missing.

“The whole time her hands were in my purse.

“l took it off her and I don’t think anything was missing.

“ She spoke very little English.

“I think she opened my bag coming out the toilets and dropped my purse.

“I was not happy.”

Lee Hammond, head of security services for the East of England Co-op, said: “We’ve received no reports of similar incidents occurring at our Halstead supermarket, nor at any of our other stores.

“If customers are concerned about an experience they’ve had whilst shopping with us, we encourage them to speak to a member of the store team at the time of the incident, or to contact our Customer Support team as soon as possible so that we can take appropriate action.”

The Customer Support team can be contacted via email at customersupport@eastofengland.coop or by calling 0800 055 6109.