Police in County Limerick are on the lookout for for a thief they have officially described as a "a hefty blond lady".

The tall female suspect is in her 20s and displayed extraordinary strength in what has been described as a brazen robbery.

The woman pulled up outside Moss the Farmer’s Spar shop in Abbeyfeale shortly before 6pm on Wednesday, when the supermarket was busy.

In plain view of staff, customers and CCTV she managed to hoist four heavy bottles of natural gas and pitch them onto the roof rack of her car. She then drove off without paying for the gas and hasn’t been seen since.

Shop owner James Harnett said: "She drove up right in front of the shop in front of the CCTV cameras. The cameras showed she had driven past a few minutes earlier and drove up a cul-de-sac before returning.

"She parked about 20ft from where the bottled gas was and then lifted them up no bother.

"She was gone so quickly that she had left before we realised she hadn’t paid for the gas. The cylinders cost over €30 each and the fill of gas about €30, so the total loss is about €240 ($340)," He told the Irish Examiner.

After the local police were alerted they posted a "wanted person" alert on their internal  intelligence Pulse system, in which they officially described the suspect as "a hefty blond lady." 
"She lifted the four drums onto the roof rack and then drove off without paying. It would have taken a considerable amount of effort and she must be a fairly strong person. She was there just a few minutes before driving off,” Harnett said.

"We have all the bottles chained now," he added.

Meanwhile police in Limerick are continuing their search for a "hefty blond lady."