Morrisons' employees' bank details published online

Struggling supermarket Morrisons suffered a fresh blow today after payroll data relating to thousands of employees, including bank account details, was stolen and published on a website.

It comes a day after Britain's fourth biggest supermarket tumbled to a £176 million annual loss and issued a profits warning, sending shares down by 12%.

Morrisons said police had been informed of the data theft, which affects staff from all levels of the organisation including the board, but would not comment on whether chief executive Dalton Philips was among them.

The supermarket said it became aware of the data theft last night, hours after it announced financial results to the City and that Mr Philips was leading the response.

It wrote to all employees via email to inform them of the data theft, while managers were also informing workers at its sites.

The company posted a Facebook statement, but some staff voiced disquiet that they learned of the breach in this way.

It said: "We are very sorry that this has happened. We will ensure that no colleague will be left financially disadvantaged as a result of this theft."

Morrisons did not say how many of its 130,000 employees were affected.