St Leonards Supermarket owners buoyed by community support after armed robbery; CCTV footage released

Two masked men entered the store about 4pm brandishing a gun and demanded cash and cigarettes from owner Mian Ahmad, police said. The offenders left in a stolen white Ford Courier ute with black roof racks and a canopy.

About $320 in cash and several packets of cigarettes were stolen, Mr Ahmad said.

CCTV footage from the business shows offenders enter with a firearm:

Mr Ahmad and his family moved to Tasmania from Pakistan three years ago, eventually settling on St Leonards as the ideal place to start a small business and raise their two children.

Despite moving to Tasmania for "the quiet and the peace", after two armed robberies in just over a year, the family has been left dejected.

Mr Ahmad said they wanted to provide their children with the best possible upbringing, and the small business was part of that dream.

"We moved to Australia for our kids, to give them a better future. We came to Australia for safety but this kind of thing has now happened to us twice," Mr Ahmad said.

They were concerned that the armed robbery would deter people from visiting the supermarket.

Despite the Ahmad family "not sleeping at all" after Saturday's incident, the supermarket reopened as normal on Sunday thanks to the support from the St Leonards community.

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Wife Ayisha Babar said that while this had been a difficult time for the family, they were encouraged by the support of the St Leonards community.

"Merging in to a new society is a difficult thing and when these sort of incidents happen it really makes it hard," she said. "We opened again today for our community, the community has shown us love and support."

Tasmania Police attempted to lock down the area straight after the armed robbery, but they were yet to locate the ute or the offenders.

Inspector Nathan Johnston sought to reassure the community that serious offences in the Northern region were down.

The St Leonards armed robbery occurred after the launch of a Northern taskforce targeting illegal firearms with a gun amnesty.

"There's been quite good results from the gun taskforce and amnesty, but unfortunately these things do happen," Inspector Johnston said.

Investigations are ongoing and police are interested in speaking with anyone who witnessed the incident or saw the ute in the area about 4pm on Saturday.

Anyone with information can contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

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