Police in Northern Ireland have launched an investigation after a substantial sum of money was taken in an armed robbery on a bookmaker's premises in west Belfast this morning.
As two female members of staff were preparing to open the shop just after 9.30 a.m., a man with an 18-inch knife entered the bookmakers on the Falls Road.
He was described as being about 5ft 10 inches tall and of stocky build and was wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a brown hat with a scarf covering his face.
The man pushed one of the women's heads against a wall and forced her to open the safe before making off with a substantial sum of money.