Armed robbery at camera store

San Francisco police are investigating an armed robbery at a camera store near Union Square, with nearly $200,000 in goods reportedly stolen Saturday afternoon.

The armed robbery occurred a week after Mayor London Breed and the city’s top law enforcement officials made a plea to shoppers to return to Union Square in time for the holidays.

Last year, several stores were boarded up after a rash of retail thefts in the area.

Police were called to a retail business about 1:15 p.m. Saturday on the 400 block of Bush Street for a report of an armed robbery, Officer Robert Rueca said in a statement.

Rueca declined to identify the retailer because of the investigation, but an employee at the Leica Store confirmed in an email Sunday that the merchant was robbed Saturday afternoon. The employee declined to be identified.

The thieves reportedly entered the store with weapons and fled in a vehicle with stolen property.

A surveillance video posted by ABC7 showed the thieves fleeing the store with an estimated $178,000 in merchandise.

The employee and San Francisco police declined to provide further details about the robbery.