Police are investigating the armed robbery of a bottle shop at Berkeley in the Illawarra last night.

At 6:40pm, Thursday 3 October 2013, a 21-year-old man was working in the bottle shop on Kelly Street when a man wearing a balaclava and brandishing a meat cleaver entered the store.

He demanded and was handed an amount of cash and cigarettes before fleeing the scene in a brown coloured sedan which was last seen travelling north on Nolan Street.

Police from Lake Illawarra Local Area Command were contacted and attended the bottle shop where they established a crime scene which was examined by forensic officers.

Detectives are now looking for a man who has been described as being of Caucasian appearance, 165cm tall with a thin build and wearing a blue hooded top.