A group of four men with guns looted a jewellery shop in Howrah’s Domjur a little after noon on Tuesday, holding the owner and an employee at gunpoint.

Such was the audacity of the robbers that they left the rolling shutter and the glass door of MS Gems and Jewellers Sons open during the 12-minute operation.

The store on Howrah-Amta Road, around 20km from the heart of Calcutta, is barely 150m from the nearest police station. The robbers allegedly drove past the police station after the heist.

An employee said around 5kg of gold jewellery was stolen. The owners, he said, are yet to quantify the loss in cash.

The gang arrived on two-wheelers and headed in the direction of Domjur police station after the heist, which left the owners of other shops in the locality numb with fear.

Rakesh Das, the shop’s owner who was hit on his head with a revolver butt, was taken to a hospital nearby.

Around 12.10pm, two youths entered the shop posing as customers and began looking for gold chains and pendants, the police said based on the accounts of shop employees.

“The shop’s owner was away when the robbers first entered. He returned soon, accompanied by a guard. Two other robbers, who were outside, trailed them into the shop,” said a senior officer of Domjur police station.

“They got hold of the security guard while entering, caught him by his collar, dragged him in, tied him up and slapped glue stickers on his face.”

Ganesh Mondal, the guard, later told reporters: “They made me sit on a chair, tied my hands and legs and sealed my lips. As far as I can recall, there were four robbers.”

Owner Das was bleeding from the head after being hit with a gun as the gang members picked up ornaments from display counters.

“I was busy showing ornaments to the two men who entered the shop first. Then two others entered and held us at gunpoint. The operation lasted a little over 10 minutes,” said Shreya Samanta, the woman at the counter.

“The shop’s shutter wasn’t pulled down when they were lifting the ornaments. While leaving they hit one of our goldsmiths with a gun and that resulted in a stray gunshot.”

The jewellery shop stands between a popular momo outlet and a diagnostic centre on the ground floor of a five-storey residential building. A shopping mall is located a few hundred metres away, the Domjur hospital is nearby and a furniture shop stands across the busy road. Several housing complexes are coming up on either side.

“The gang members spoke in Bengali and Hindi,” said the police officer.

“We are scanning CCTV footage. A breakthrough should come soon.”