Baby becomes caught up in convenience store robbery

A convenience store worker has had a gun pointed in her face while holding her baby during an armed robbery.

The woman from Gastonia, North Carolina, said she tried to calm the man down and spoke with him for a couple of minutes about why he wanted to rob her shop as she shielded her one-year-old girl, local media reports.

As another robber acted as look out, the unnamed victim found out he was also a parent.

"I said, 'I have a baby too, but just put the gun down, don't point it,’" she said.

Just as she was thinking he may leave without following through with the hold up, a customer entered and nervously smiled at the gunman, angering him.

"It was a turning point,” the clerk said.

Two shots were then fired in the store "to show he meant business", according to police.

He then made off with an unknown amount of cash.

Police are still searching for the men, who are suspected of being behind a number of other armed robberies in the Gastonia area.