Timaru pub customer tries to avert hold-up

A pub customer tried to wrench a shotgun from a robber during a hold-up.

Police said were about 10 people in the public bar of Timaru's Grosvenor Hotel when the robber, carrying a pump-action shotgun, walked in and demanded a key from the barmaid. A patron, understood to be a friend of the barmaid, then made a grab for the gun. The robber shouted: "You want some of this?" a witness said.

After taking cash, understood to be the float from poker machines, the robber fled. Police said the man who tried to grab the shotgun was brave but foolhardy.