More than 600 items, including military medals and jewellery from a collection documenting the links between Britain and countries in the former British Empire, were stolen from a UK museum in September, police said Thursday.

Avon and Somerset Police have launched an appeal for information about four men captured on security cameras on 25 September outside a building in the southwestern city of Bristol, which housed items from the collection.

"More than 600 artefacts of various descriptions were taken by the offenders," police said in a statement about the theft from the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection.