BETTER safe than sorry. That was the feeling of Northern Rock customers in Hampshire who have spent a tense few days fearing the loss of their savings.

Spurred on by scenes of thousands of people queuing outside Northern Rock branches up and down the country, a steady flow of concerned customers across the county have been making sure their hard earned cash is safe.

Many who turned up to the branch in London Road, Southampton, were amazed that there were no lengthy queues and hurried inside to withdraw their money and close their accounts.

Although they were all well aware of Government assurances that there was no need to panic and that there was no chance of money being lost, many felt they couldn't take that risk.

John and Jackie Farmer, from Totton, feared that if the bank went bust they would lose all their life savings so the decision to close their accounts was an easy one to make.

John, 80, said: "When you get to our age you want to look after your savings and make sure they are totally safe. I know the Government have said the money is safe but I don't trust that.

"We came down here early because we expected to queue for hours so we were thrilled to be able to walk straight in and close our accounts.

Jackie, 86, added: "It may just be a glitch but who knows and we are not prepared to take that risk. After watching the news we knew we had to come down this morning and ensure our money was safe. We are laughing now because our money is safe."

Since Thursday panicked customers have withdrawn around £2bn from the bank and its share price collapsed by a third, after it applied to the Bank of England for emergency funds.

Ministers took dramatic action yesterday in an attempt to end the crisis as Chancellor Alistair Darling announced the Government would guarantee all deposits with the bank.

He said: "Should it be necessary, we, with the Bank of England, would put in place arrangements that would guarantee all the existing deposits in Northern Rock during the current instability in the financial markets."

The Chancellor's announcement came as panic selling of Northern Rock shares spread to other banks.

Northern Rock's stock market value fell by 35 per cent, or £600m to £1.19bn, almost half its value since it agreed emergency funding with the Bank of England on Friday.

The Alliance and Leicester saw its value fall by 30 per cent and shares in Bradford and Bingley fell 15 per cent.

Worries over the economy also spread to the housing sector, with big falls in many construction company stocks.