A grandmother restaurant cook relived her terror after a man with what appeared to be a handgun charged at her and demanded cash.

The woman said: “I thought he was joking — like it was somebody just playing games — but then he put the gun up.

“He had it wrapped up in a red scarf, so I don’t even know if it was a real gun or a play gun.”

She added: “This is the first time that something like this has ever happened, that’s why we were so shocked.”

The staff member at Grannie’s Kitchen take-out was speaking after a man in a dark helmet robbed the restaurant in North Shore Road, Pembroke, at about 11am yesterday and escaped with $80 in cash.

The woman, from Somerset, who asked not to be named, said the raider was accompanied by another man, also wearing a dark helmet, who walked out of the restaurant before the robber demanded cash.

She added: “He ran around the other side of the counter and asked for the money. I said ‘we don’t have any money, we use the till’ and showed him where the till was.

“He couldn’t get the till open, so my boss opened the till and threw the money at him, almost like she was shooing him away.

“When she threw the money at him it all fell on the floor. He only picked up some and then left the rest of it there.”

The cook said that the thief and his accomplice escaped on a motorcycle.

She added that, although nobody was hurt, the staff were stunned by the ordeal.

The woman explained: “I really thought it was a joke, because everybody jokes around. We have people who come here that mess around all the time.

“Everybody’s fine now, but it was upsetting when it happened.”

The woman added that the area was a “beautiful” community and staff did not often have to deal with troublesome customers.

She said: “They wait for their orders, they don’t grumble and we don’t argue or anything. The customers are great.”

Grannie’s Kitchen was bought by Debbie Bean in 2015 and is staffed by several members of her family.

Kee Bean, also a chef at the restaurant and a niece of the owner, said local people had rallied round after the robbery.

She added: “A lot of people have been calling and saying that they’re outraged that this happened to Grannie’s.

“We’ve even had people tell us that they were willing to cover the cost of what was taken.”

Ms Bean said that the restaurant had CCTV cameras outside but they were taken down two weeks ago for repairs.

She added: “You’d think that something like this wouldn’t happen to you because you do good for the community and that they would do good for you.”

Michael Weeks, a Progressive Labour Party backbencher and the MP for the area, said anyone with information about the robbery should contact the police.

He added: “Let’s make a difference and assist in any way that we can to aid in eradicating these criminal acts.”