A terrified fast-food restaurant manager said he feared for his life after he was confronted by knife-wielding raiders in the early hours of yesterday.

Shane Curtis was punched in the face by one of the robbers and later learnt a colleague had been threatened with what appeared to be a handgun during the robbery at Ice Queen in Paget.

Mr Curtis, a night manager at the popular takeaway, said: “I had gone into the office, I was just scribbling a note for the next shift and then, all of a sudden — ‘bam’ — they just burst in.

“This guy comes in with a knife, shouting ‘Where’s the safe? Open the safe.’ Apparently he had jumped over the counter and he just ran right through. I saw my life flash before my eyes.

“The boy had a knife, I got robbed — he found my bag on the shelf, he took my wallet.

“When I stood up to confront him, that’s when he hit me and I just fell back. I said ‘this can’t be happening’.”

Mr Curtis was speaking after three men wearing helmets and dark visors entered the restaurant at about 2.45am yesterday. Two others were working in different areas of the building and one had a gun pushed into his side by a man who demanded that he open the till — which only the manager can do.

Police said the third man was also armed with a knife and the gang escaped with “a quantity of cash”.

Mr Curtis added: “It happened so quickly, according to the video, the incident lasted all of a minute and 40 seconds — and then they were gone.

“They were like stealth ninjas because by the time I got on the phone to call 911 they were gone and nobody saw which way they went.

“We have security cameras on the property but I wonder if there are security cameras on the street, because then the police can figure out which way they went.”

Mr Curtis suffered a cut above his right eye and said that there was “a lot” of blood.

But, he said he declined medical treatment, although he and his two co-workers were shaken.

Mr Curtis added he suspected the men, who fled on foot, waited until the late night takeaway had no customers.

Mr Curtis, who has worked at Ice Queen for more than two years, told The Royal Gazette: “It wasn’t terribly busy, the perpetrators must have been watching the place to pick a time when there was nobody there.

“It’s almost as if they were casing the place.”

He added: “When I started this endeavour, I thought I was going to bring some kind of decorum and acumen to this place but it is what it is.

“It’s a fast-food restaurant and people are going to do what they’re going to do.”

Mr Curtis thanked the police for their response and pleaded for anyone with information on the robbery to come forward.

A Bermuda Police Service spokesman said inquiries into the raid continued.

Two of the suspects were said to be 6ft tall. One wore a camouflage-design helmet and a black hoodie with white writing on the front. The other had a black helmet and black clothes.

The third man was said to be 5ft 6in, wearing a black helmet and a black varsity-style jacket with white sleeves.

Anyone with information should call the police serious crime unit on 247-1739 or the independent and confidential Crime Stoppers hotline on 800-8477.