A SHOPKEEPER was left shaking with fear after two men threatened him with a knife and a metal pole.

Dennis Thavarajah, 38, still managed to press the panic alarm at York Superstore, York Road, Southend, and the crooks fled empty-handed.

The suspects, aged 36 and 28, were caught less than two hours later as they allegedly tried to steal beer and meat from nearby Tesco Express.

Sri Lankan Mr Thavarajah recalled what happened.

He said: “Two men came in and were pretending to look at the sandwiches. But then one of them came to the front of the counter, pulled out a knife and this metal pole and said ‘give me the money in the till!’.

“I have a panic button so I touched it and because it was quite noisy they ran off.”

The incident happened at about 8pm on Wednesday, and left him too terrified to open up his shop the following morning.

He said: “I couldn’t sleep that night because I kept thinking about what would have happened if they’d injured me."

Police managed to arrest the suspects at about 10pm because of quick-thinking staff at Tesco Express in Heygate Avenue.

Team leader Lauren Evans, 23, spotted two men in the security mirror as they allegedly tried to steal about £20 of meat and beer. She used the Townlink radio to raise the alarm before locking the men inside the store until police arrived.

She said: “They seemed sightly drunk. I said I wouldn’t let them out until they gave our stuff back. They handed it over, but I literally let them out of the door and the police sirens were outside.”

An Essex Police spokeswoman said: “A 36-year-old man from Rayleigh, and a 28-year-old man from Westcliff, were arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery and theft. They are in custody at Southend police station.”