The chief executive of an Edinburgh jewellery store has described how three balaclava-clad men smashed display cabinets and stole £580,000 worth of jewellery and designer watches.

Stephen Paterson told the High Court in Livingston raiders, who were dressed in boiler suits, took rings, necklaces and Patek Phillippe timepieces after arriving armed with machetes and axes at Hamilton & Inches in George Street on June 6 last year.

Mr Paterson, 53, told the jury at the trial of two men that the wholesale value of one necklace stolen from the window display was £325,000.

He said he had just finished a phone call in his office at the front of the building when he heard "some sort of crashing and shouting".

He said: "At first I thought somebody had maybe crashed a car outside close to the building.

"I opened the door and saw my colleague Stuart McDowell with his hands up being ushered to the floor.

"I saw three balaclava'd men with dark, what-seemed-to-be padded, boiler suits, with gloves and axes and machetes.

"I was extremely angry that people would come in and do this to our premises and also to my staff."

When one of the raiders ordered him to open his office to gain access to a "very, very high value" window display Mr Paterson said he refused at first, believing he could "take him on".

He said it was only after a second man brandishing a machete came up to him and shouted: "Open the f****** door!" that he did so.

One man pushed 67-year-old shop worker Margaret Mclennan to the floor, causing her to injure her head on a display cabinet, the court heard.

Michael Hood, 32, from Edinburgh, denies assault and robbery, reset, possession of cannabis and a series of motoring offences.

HE further denies resetting a second car with false plates.

Kurtis Beech, 28, of Salford, Greater Manchester, denies driving two stolen cars which had number plates.

The trial before Lord Glennie continues.