A 51-year-old woman was confronted by a burglar when she returned home in one of several burglaries this week.

The burglar, wearing a black hooded top and jeans, fled down the stairs and ran off after he was disturbed.

He made off with a packet of cigarettes and a lighter from the house at Downside Avenue, Bitterne, just before 6pm on Wednesday.

In another break-in the same day a Toshiba laptop was stolen from a house in Bassett Green Drive, between 8.30am and 6pm. The thief broke in through a conservatory.

And a back window of a house in Imperial Avenue, Shirley, was smashed with a concrete block in an attempted burglary between 4pm on Tuesday and 11.30am on Wednesday.

Any information should go to burglary investigations co-ordinator Helen Ward on 023 8053 3231.