A PRESTEIGNE newsagent said his wife felt 'intimidated' after police questioned her about sales of a special edition of Charlie Hebdo magazine.

Dyfed-Powys Police visited Winnie's Newsagents on the town's High Street to ask Deborah Merrett, who runs the shop with husband Paul, questions about how the couple obtained copies of the magazine, where they got them from and how they let customers know they had them.

Mr Merrett said police also asked whether his wife knew who the customers who bought the magazine were but she declined to give any names.

Copies of the French satirical magazine's special edition went on sale in the UK following a massacre at its Paris offices which left 12 people dead and shocked the world.

Mr Merrett, 56, said: "I wasn't here at the time but my wife was here and she rang me and said 'I have just had the police here for the last half an hour.

"They started asking her about the Charlie Hebdo magazine after introducing themselves as a detective and local police officer.

"As soon as they asked whether we knew the customers she said we did but she wasn't prepared to give any names out."

Two customers were in the shop at the time but Mr Merrett said that after police left many more flooded in to find out what had happened.

"We sold 30 copies of the magazine so there would've been 30 people that knew we had it but after that 3,000 people knew," he said

Mr Merrett, who took on the newsagents three years ago after returning to his native Wales after living in Australia for several years, said his wife has been left shaken by the visit.

"She was really shocked and it scared her a bit and she thought she might be a target for something. She felt quite intimidated," he said.

"When the massacre happened in Paris I knew an extra 60,000 copies were going on sale and we were getting enquiries about whether we were going to sell it.

"The community has supported us and don't think we have done anything wrong and we have probably been busier than ever."

In a statement, Dyfed Powys Police said the visits were only made to enhance public safety and to provide community reassurance.

The statement said: "As part of ongoing community engagement and following recent terrorism incidents globally Dyfed Powys Police have been undertaking an assessment of community tensions across the force area.

As part of this assessment it was decided that it would be prudent to visit newsagents who maybe distributing the Charlie Hebdo magazine to offer proportionate advice and reassurance due to the heightened publicity surrounding the publication.

It was not the intention to gather any personal information of those who purchased the magazine and we can confirm no purchaser details were asked for or recorded."

The Guardian has reported that similar visits were paid to newsagents in Wiltshire and Cheshire.