A 63-year-old woman is in a critical condition in hospital after she was attacked by a robber at the shop where she works.
The woman suffered serious head injuries in the "appalling and senseless" attack, which is being treated as attempted murder, in Catrine, East Ayrshire.
The suspect came into the Catrine Convenience Store through a rear entrance and threatened the woman with a knife and a heavy blunt weapon at around 2.35pm on Sunday afternoon.
She gave him money, believed to be around a four-figure sum - but he then seriously assaulted her with the blunt weapon before leaving the shop through the back exit.
A member of the public raised the alarm after he found the woman lying injured in the shop.
She was taken by ambulance to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock then transferred to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where she is being treated for serious head injuries. Hospital staff describe her condition as critical.
Police are treating the incident as attempted murder and appealed for information about the attack at the shop in St Germain Street.
Detective Chief Inspector Martin Fergus, of the Major Investigation Team (West), said: "This is an appalling and senseless crime on this defenceless woman.
"She had handed him over a large sum of money, so there was absolutely no need for him to attack her in the violent and sickening way he did. He obviously has no conscience and must be caught.
"Yesterday afternoon at the time of the incident, the local area would have been busy and I'm sure that someone would have seen this man with his distinctive pink scarf wrapped round his face.
"Today, officers are continuing their extensive inquiries, including carrying out inquiries in the local area and studying CCTV footage to gather more information.
"We are urging anyone with information that may assist this investigation to come forward as a matter of urgency.
"Anyone with information should contact the Major Investigation Team (West) through 101. Alternatively Crimestoppers can be contacted on 0800 555 111, where anonymity can be maintained."
The suspect is described as white, 5ft 10in and of slim build with short dark hair.
He was wearing a dark-coloured Lonsdale tracksuit hooded top with white piping down each arm, a pink scarf covering his face, a dark-coloured baseball cap and black gloves.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here