AN Orpington woman has hit out at police for taking 16 hours to respond to a 999 call.

Sandy Sheffield, who works at Martins newsagents in Crofton Lane, called for help after being terrified by youths who demanded she empty the till and then threatened to use a weapon.

The operator who took her call informed her officers were very busy, and told her to make herself a cup of tea.

The 55-year-old's ordeal began at about 5.20pm last Friday when three youths walked into the shop.

Two of them tried to distract her but she refused to move from behind the till, afraid they might try to steal money or cigarettes.

Then the other youth approached her, with a hand down his trousers and told her to hand over the takings, saying: "Don't make me use this weapon."

Their attempts were foiled when they realised Mrs Sheffield's daughter Dawn, 28, who also works there, was in the rear of the shop. She immediately called the police hoping the offenders could be caught near the scene but an operator told her to "have a cuppa" and said an officer would be there as soon as possible.

A police officer arrived at the scene at about 10am the following morning, more than 16 hours after the youths fled.

Mrs Sheffield said: "It seems we aren't worth anything to the police. Just because I wasn't hurt, they thought it wasn't worth their attention. But those youths could have gone anywhere and done anything to anyone. I can't sleep at night for thinking about what could have happened.

"It seems the police are either too scared to go out or they just can't be bothered."

Inspector Mike Read, of Bromley police operations unit, said: "The call was assigned to officers within a couple of minutes, at 5.34pm. However while they were heading to the shop they had to head off to an urgent emergency.

"On that particular night there were strong winds and police attended more calls than usual.

"We treat all crimes like this very seriously, and will be investigating."