Police are appealing for witnesses to an arson attack on a pharmacy in Oxfordshire.

A wheelie bin was set on fire and pushed against the back wall of Knights Pharmacy in Banbury shortly before 11pm on November 2, Thames Valley Police said. The fire from the bin caused a gas mains to catch alight, which damaged the rear of the premises, police said on Sunday (November 9).

Pharmacist Darshana Chauhan told C+D that the back of the pharmacy had been "quite smoked up" as a result of the incident, but the rest of the pharmacy and its stock had escaped undamaged.

Police constable Dominic Watson of Banbury police station appealed to "anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area" between 10.45pm and 11pm on the day of the incident.There had been several similar attacks in the area and it was important that those responsible were traced to prevent further incidents, said PC Watson.

He was "particularly keen" to speak to a witness who had alerted members of the public to the fire and who may have information that could help the investigation, he said.

The witness was white, of medium build, between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall and was thought to be in his late 20s, police said. He had short, dark hair with a red polo shirt and left the scene before police arrived, PC Watson added.

Ms Chauhan said the pharmacy had opened "as usual" at 9am the next morning and the incident had not prevented staff from "getting on with their normal day-to-day business".

"We were quite surprised, but it's just one of those things that's going to happen. If there was a lot of damage we could have potentially lost millions of pounds worth of stock, so hopefully they will find out who did it," she added.

Anyone with information relating to the incident should contact the 24-hour Thames Valley Police enquiry centre by calling 101 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111, police said.

	Has your pharmacy ever been damaged by fire?