A SECURITY guard is to undergo surgery after he was involved in a callous and cold-blooded shooting outside a local post office.

The Post Office worker was shot in the neck with a handgun during an armed robbery outside Lickey Post Office, in Old Birmingham Road.

The 52-year-old father-of-two, from the Birmingham area, was attacked when he and a colleague arrived in a van to deliver cash at 11.55am last Thursday.

A balaclava clad gang, of up to four people, then made off with an undisclosed amount of cash in a light grey Mitsubishi Evolution with 05 number plates.

The van was driven erratically and abandoned at the Poacher's Pocket pub, at the bottom of Rose Hill. A driver of a grey Rover was then threatened at gunpoint and the gang stole his car.

Some cash was left behind in the Mitsubishi, along with a gun. Police are unsure if this vehicle had crashed, was dumped or broke down.

Post Office money bags were dumped in Gannow Green Lane, Frankley, later on Thursday afternoon and the Rover was abandoned and set slight in Bartley Green, in the early hours of Friday morning.

West Mercia's Det Insp Sheila Thornes said: "The security guard is conscious and stable. He was in intensive care but has now been transferred to a high dependency unit."

A Bromsgrove police spokesman was unable to confirm if the security guard was empty handed at the time of the shooting, where the cash was taken from and if the second guard was locked in the van.

A Post Office spokesman said: "This is a very disturbing attack on a member of our staff in the course of his day-to-day work and we are very concerned that the injuries he received had led to his admission to hospital."

The Post Office has now offered a £10,000 reward to information leading to the successful arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Anyone with information about the incident should contact Bromsgrove police on 08456 444888 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.