Three boys charged over takeaway holdup

A 12-year-old is one of three boys charged with armed robbery after allegedly holding up a woman at a takeaway shop and stealing her car in NSW's west.

Police say the three boys, aged 16, 13 and 12, entered the fast food shop in Gulargambone on Friday, one of them armed with a knife.

They allegedly demanded and took money and car keys from the woman behind the counter before driving off in her vehicle.

The woman told a man out the front of the store she'd been robbed and he followed the youths at a distance in his car, directing police to their location.

Police stopped the car a short time later and arrested the trio nearby after they had run from the vehicle.

All three were refused bail to appear in a children's court on February 10.