An armed man pointed a firearm at two children during the aggravated robbery of a Hawke's Bay takeaway shop at the weekend.
Two men, one armed with the gun and one with a knife, ran into Racecourse Takeaways on Gascoigne St, Hastings, and threatened owner Shenyong Zhou and his family before making off with about $500 cash on Sunday night.
Mr Zhou, who owns and runs the shop with his wife, said his 18-month-old son and 3-year-old daughter did not understand what was happening and came to greet the men.
"It was a big, long gun like a farmer would use to kill animals," he said. "He pointed the gun to me and the other one held the knife to me. My children they are so young they didn't understand what was happening, they came out to say 'hi' and he pointed the gun to my children.
"That he used the gun to [threaten] me is no problem, but using the gun to [threaten] my little children is really dangerous."