Story By: Ana Lacasa, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News

Video Credit: CEN

This is the moment a hapless thief armed with a gun tries to hold up a shop run by two OAPs but gets a shock when the elderly woman shoots him dead to protect her husband.

The incident was filmed by a CCTV camera in a shop in the city of Blumenau in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina and widely shared on social media.

Reports said that the elderly woman killed the gunman, but acted in self-defence and will not face prosecution.

In the shocking footage, the shop owner is seen chatting to a woman at the counter as her husband in a red top stands at the back of the store.

A burly man struts into the shop and makes a beeline for the husband as the female customer runs out of the store.

While the armed robber is forcing the elderly man to the floor, his wife is seen getting a gun from under the counter.

She points the weapon at the unsuspecting gunman and shoots without hesitation despite her husband lying just inches away.

She appears to shoot the man in the back, and her husband slides away and grabs his gun.

At the end of the footage, the woman is seen calling the emergency services as her husband keeps watch over the injured gunman, apparently pulling out his own firearm as well.

According to local media, the suspect, identified as 26-year-old Evandro de Andrade, was rushed to hospital where he later died of his gunshot wound.

Police spokesman Nicolas Vasconcelo said that the woman will not face charges because “she pulled the trigger in self-defence”, and confirmed that her gun was registered.

He added: “The life of a victim of aggression is always priority.”

Right-wing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has demanded a tough response to the country’s crime problems.

The controversial leader, who won the 2018 presidential campaign by a decisive margin, said that cops who gun down armed criminals with “10 or 30 shots need to be decorated not prosecuted.”

Picture Credit: CEN