Jewellery store boss tackles armed thieves - and shoves them out of the door

A hero manager has risked his life to stop thieves armed with a gun, axes and a baseball bat from ransacking his Melbourne jewellery store.

He refused to open the safe, and then rushed at the gang, pushing them out the door.

The Toorak based shop’s CCTV showed a worker walking into the store, unaware that three armed and masked offenders were right behind her.

One of the offenders allegedly pulled out a gun and led a worker to the back of the store, while the others smashed jewellery cases.

Then the manager arrived, he indicated he was going to have none of the alleged robbers' behaviour.

He screamed at them and moved closer and closer, gesturing to the robbers to get out, bravely standing up to the man with the gun.

Witnesses said the manager refused to open the safe and commanded the thieves to leave.

“The guy working in the shop was yelling at them, "get out of my shop, get out of my shop"," one witness said.

The manager then shoved the criminals out of the door, locking it behind them.

• Killer snaps selfie after stealing $80,000 copy of The Wind in the Willows

• Queensland mother Alexis Jeffery 'murdered with her own jeans'

The thieves allegedly made off with hand-made high-end diamond rings but witnesses say they saw the getaway car and made a note of the number plates.

Police are investigating the alleged theft at the store which has been in its Toorak location for 42 years.

The owner and staff spent Tuesday cleaning up the damage, with losses possibly running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Local traders said they believed the men had been casing the shop before the crime.

“Apparently a couple of guys were seen loitering around the place, so hopefully they will be able to ID who they are,” Richard Marchionna said.

The store’s owner Tony Fialides said he was pleased the robbery was not worse.

“They’re (staff) very, very upset and we are about to arrange counseling,” he said.

“I am very happy that nobody was hurt. That to me is everything.”