THE DUNFERMLINE Post Office was broken into in broad daylight last week - after staff were locked out of their own branch!

When staff turned up for work around 9am last Thursday morning they had no way of getting into the building on Queen Anne Street after a cleaner locked herself out in the early hours when the back door shut behind her with the key still inside.

Customers were left to stand in the rain for more than an hour as they waited for a locksmith to crack open the door and let them in to post their Christmas parcels.

The Press was contacted by one onlooker, who wished to be anonymous, explaining what had caused the chaos at the branch.

“In the morning, a cleaner took the rubbish out to the bins and the back door shut behind her, locking her and the staff out,” he said.

“The front door was double-snibbed and nobody else - not even the manager - had the key for the back door.

“Eventually, a locksmith was called and in front of the sizeable audience he had to break into the post office, hammering away on the front door until it broke.” The door was eventually opened again at around 10.20am but it was a miserable wait for the customers - some of whom had been queuing since 8.40am.

“There was a huge queue,” continued the onlooker. “It was the last day for posting second class and the queue was right down the street, with people waiting in the shopping centre to try to keep dry.

“Watching your own post office get broken into is a bit bizarre and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time of the year.

“There was great speculation among people there as to how on earth nobody had a key!” A Post Office spokesperson said, “We would like to apologise to customers for disruption to services last Thursday morning at Dunfermline Post Office and for any inconvenience this may have caused.”