A BRAZEN armed robbery attempt at a rush-hour MRT station was foiled on Wednesday by a quick-thinking cashier who ran out of the store and locked the robber in before calling the police.

The hour-long incident happened on Wednesday afternoon around 4pm at the 7-Eleven outlet at Braddell MRT station.

However, it seemed that the 38-year-old Singaporean robber did not know he was locked in and continued ransacking the convenience outlet, according to 17-year-old Fong Mei Mei, who works at a nearby clothing store and witnessed the incident.

During this time, the cashier - who is in his early 30s - had zipped over to a public phone opposite the shop to make a call to the cops.

Only when the robber who was done pilfering and had wanted to make a move did he realise he was locked in.

In desperation, the man removed the closed circuit television mounted to the shop's ceiling and smashed it against the door.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.