A fundraiser set up for a vegan eatery which was targeted by thieves has smashed its target, raising thousands for the independent business

The owners of Café Thrive in Southampton city centre said it was a "kick in the teeth" to discover their restaurant had been broken into in the early hours of the morning on Friday.

Shortly after 1am on February 28, the glass door to the café was smashed and approximately £100 was taken from the eatery's tip jar.

The culprit then left the premises via the back door before police arrived at the scene.

But a fundraiser set up on Friday by a customer, a blogger called The Bearded Vegan, has now raised £2,300 across the weekend.

READ MORE: Café owner tells of ‘kick in the teeth' after break-in overnight

"I set the fundraiser up because I saw the awful thing that happened to one of my favourite small businesses and knew that my social presence could bring in the support from the community both local to them and further afield," the blogger said.

"We have even had supporters from other countries donating, as far as Australia."

The Bearded Vegan said that the owners were "discussing better security" for the café, calling Thrive's food the "best around" in his opinion.

One person who had donated to the fundraiser called Cafe Thrive "so so important for the vegan community and movement", with another saying the restaurant was "hands down" their favourite place to eat.

Hampshire police confirmed to the Echo that enquiries into the incident are still ongoing, with officers CCTV scoping and progressing the investigation.

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They had received reports of a burglary at 1.08am.

Speaking to the Echo on Friday, Café Thrive co-owner Sarah Abbott told the Echo that it was "lovely to see" the fundraiser being started.

"It’s not something we started, it was one of our regular customers,” she said.

“It was very generous of him. I think he set an initial target of £250 and went over that quite quickly which is so brilliant, all I really wanted to do was cover the cost of the tips.

“We’ll get another glass door installed and we hope this sort of thing won’t happen again.”

The co-owner told the Echo the glass door would cost thousands to replace.