A female Post Office worker has been taken to hospital after being hurt during a raid by an armed gang this afternoon.

Would-be robbers - believed to be armed with sledgehammers - burst into the shop in Valley Drive, Gravesend, at about 2.20pm.

The gang of men threatened a female staff member - named locally as Pauline - with a heavy object, believed to be the hammer.

It was reported up to three men were seen fleeing the Post Office empty handed.

Kent Police said the woman was injured and has been taken to hospital, but her injuries are not thought to be serious.

The force said officers were called to reports of an attempted robbery at the Post Office at just before 2.20pm.

Two ambulances also attended and the area, including the neighbouring Nicholson & Keep Pharmacy, was sealed off.

The raid comes less than a year after another employee at the Post Office was robbed of her handbag as she got into her car parked in Hillside Avenue.

Eileen Wells was working in the bakery shop just yards from the Post Office at the time of the latest raid.

She said: "All I heard was the alarm going off. I didn't see anything because I was working at the back.

"I then saw the lady who works in there, Pauline, being taken to hospital in an ambulance. I don't think it was serious though because she was walking."

A man who did not wish to be named said he believed a female member of staff in the chemist saw three men fleeing the scene.

Video: Police at the scene of a Post Office raid in Gravesend