HAS the Hampshire gunman struck again?

That’s what detectives are trying to establish after a gun point robbery in a supermarket car park last night.

The county’s major investigation team have been on the trail of an armed robber who struck twice during December in the New Forest.

On the first occasion he held up a Porsche driver as he parked up at Brockenhurst railway station around 6.30am on December 5. They have since released an artists sketch of the man who carried out the robbery.

Nine days later he struck again – this time at the home of a couple in Rookes Lane, Lymington, where he walked up their driveway and held a gun to the head of a woman aged 64.

In both robberies he got away with money.

Police have also looked at a gunpoint robbery at a post office in Highcliffe, Dorset, to establish if the same man could be responsible.

Now Hampshire police are again liaising with their colleagues in Dorset to see if there could be any connection with the latest terrifying incident which happened in Verwood on Friday evening.

The robber struck around 7.25pm in the car park of Morissons supermarket in the town and threatened a woman as she approached her car.

However the bid failed when she screamed out for help and the gunman ran off.

The offender is described as white, aged between 30 and 40, of medium build and weighing between 12 and 13 stone. He spoke with a northern accent and was clean shaven. He was wearing a black woollen hat low over his eyebrows with the rim turned up, a dark jumper with a black gillet over the top, which was done up and black woollen gloves.

Dorset police have said they are keeping an open mind about whether they are connected.

Anyone with information about any of the incidents is asked to contact Southampton’s major investigation team on 101 or Dorset police using the same number.

Four people have been arrested in connection with the raids in the New Forest - two have been released on bail, one released without charge and the fourth has been charged with an unrelated robbery.