POLICE cordoned off Laindon railway station following an attempted burglary.

Passengers arriving for their early morning commute this morning found the main ticket office shut, but C2C say train services were not affected.

Police were called to the station at about 1.20am Monday morning after thieves set off the alarm.

Officers discovered bars had been removed from the windows and the ticket office at platform three had been broken into sometime during the night.

Police searched the area but nobody was caught.

A spokesman from C2C said: "An attempted burglary took place at Laindon ticket office during the early hours of this morning.

“We are currently working with the police to assist their investigation into this incident.

“With our strong security measures in place, it appears the burglars were not successful, however their attempt has caused damage to our property and we were not able to open the ticket office until about 09.30.

“We are of course frustrated at the inconvenience this caused to our customers this morning, which is one of the busiest times of the week."

Commuters were told to use the ticket counter on a different platform while officers collected evidence from the scene.

The spokesman added: “There were no delays caused to the train service, and we achieved a 100% on-time performance during this morning's peak.”

The British Transport Police are investigating the incident.

Anyone with information should call 0800 40 50 40, or information can also be passed anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.