Warning: Some people may find the footage confronting.
A worker at an Auckland liquor store has been left shaken after being kicked in the head in a brazen robbery by a trio of armed robbers last night.
CCTV footage captured the moment the trio entered the Grey Lynn store around 6pm.
One member of the group can be seen entering the store armed with a hammer, while another has a baseball bat. A third seemingly recorded the incident on his phone.
The group can be seen threatening the store's staff with their weapons before one of them appears to kick a staff member in the head.
Manager Keyur Patel told 1News he feared he'd get seriously injured.
"I wasn't expecting anything like that but as soon as I saw it, I thought, 'Oh, we are gone'. As soon as you see a hammer and baseball bat in their hand and six people just coming inside," he said.
"It was too scary."
Assistant manager Hetav Shah, who was kicked in the face, escaped with bloodied lips.
He said he felt "panicked, couldn't think of anything else",
"I was just screaming and telling them 'just take whatever you want, just don't hurt us'."
As well as the shock of the robbery, there has also been a financial hit to the business, with about $9000 to $10,000 worth of alcohol, tobacco and cash taken from the premises.
Neither of the store's staff members were seriously hurt, but the incident has left them shaken and considering additional security measures.
The store has cameras but no fog cannons – a measure they're now considering.
Subsidising fog cannons is a major focus of the Government's multimillion-dollar package, announced last month, to help tackle retail crime.
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