A Mid Sussex pensioner fought off two men as they tried to rob a village post office he used to run.

Jim Brimfield, 67, tackled the men as they lunged for the postmistress at the Horsted Keynes branch at 2pm on Monday.

Mr Brimfield, who was sub-postmaster at the branch for 20 years until 2001, seized one of the men around the neck and grappled with him before he was thrown off.

He said: "I wasn't really scared because there wasn't much time to think. It was a bit like a dream. You act almost automatically or I suppose you don't act at all."

Mr Brimfield, of The Green, Horsted Keynes, said he was returning from a walk with his wife when he went to the shop to post a parcel.

He had already noticed the men, whom he describes as tall and black, outside using their mobile phones and thought they were acting suspiciously.

While waiting in the queue, he saw one of them reach in and grab postmistress Patricia Swift as she opened a hatch to take a parcel from them.

He said: "He was very strong and I'm getting on a bit after all. I was certainly no match for one of them, never mind the two of them.

"Luckily, they ran off once they were involved in the scuffle."

By the time he had been pushed away, Ms Swift had sounded the alarm and the men fled empty handed.

Afterwards, Ms Swift said: "He was absolutely wonderful. If he hadn't been there, I don't know what I would have done. I was petrified."