Police are investigating the armed robbery of a service station at Runaway Bay in the early hours of this morning.

Around 2.30am a man entered the Oxley Drive premises wearing a shirt over his head. The male employee upon seeing the man enter immediately ran to a back room.

The offender slid underneath the security wires at the counter and approached the store employee making demands for money and gesturing as if he was concealing a weapon under his clothing however no weapon was actually sighted.

The store employee opened the cash register and the offender stole cash from the till.

During the incident the offender poured a liquid across the counter and lit it causing a small fire. The employee patted out the fire which caused minimal damage.

The store employee was not physically injured during the incident.