Discount store employee Dee Iglesias thought she was in a scene from a movie yesterday when heavily armed police in black stormed Westfield Warrawong shopping centre.
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‘‘One guy had his gun lifted up like there was someone coming his way. It was very dramatic,’’ Ms Iglesias said later from the safety of a car park across the road.
‘‘You see it on the telly with the helmets and the big dogs and that; it was all there. They had those massive, massive guns,’’ she said.
‘‘If one of them goes off you will hear it, look at the size of that gun, they’re not mucking around.’’
Ms Iglesias was one of dozens of workers whose Monday morning routine was disrupted when police blocked King Street between Cowper Street and Northcliffe Drive and shut down the shopping complex.
Responding to reports from security guards that two men armed with rifles were in the building, they sprang to action.
‘‘There was a SWAT group here, then they split up, half went inside and half went round the front,’’ Ms Iglesias said.
‘‘They kicked people out from about 6.30am saying there were gunmen on the loose; there’s two of them in the cinemas. They’ve got their dogs and everything in there,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s only gonna end one way, isn’t it? They can’t win anything out of it. Nothing good can come from something like this.’’
Trade Secret discount store manager Natalie Dron said she received a call at 6.30am about the dramatic scenes and began warning her staff.
‘‘I rang around everyone, there were about seven people I had to notify,’’ Ms Dron said. ‘‘Now we just have to wait, sit it out. I don’t even know if it will be worth opening today.
‘‘It’s pretty amazing, there are heaps of them, head to toe in black with big guns.’’
Ms Iglesias said she was concerned for cleaners, security guards and other early workers who were in the building.
‘‘That’s what is so worrying, that there are people in there,’’ she said.
‘‘I even had my son ring me and say, ‘Are you all right?’ He saw it on TV.’’
The Trade Secret staff hoped the drama would not affect business.
‘‘It’s a shame it's going to scare people off the centre, it’s been a bit quiet lately,’’ Ms Iglesias said.
‘‘Security is good in there, they’re great. They do a really good job.’’
