AN ice cool estate agent placated a man who burst into a Bournemouth estate agency and threatened to shoot staff if they didn't give him a job.

Stefan Dahl, branch manager at Fox and Sons, calmly offered the man a cup of coffee, after he demanded a job for £350 a week, claiming he was armed.

The bizarre incident happened at the office in Old Christchurch Road just before 9am yesterday.

Mr Dahl said: "The man was wearing a black leather trench coat and when he leant over I could see what looked like a telescopic rifle lens underneath.

"He just said 'give me a job or I will shoot you all.' He had dull eyes and seemed to be a bit vacant.

"I just tried to keep him calm by offering to make him a cup of coffee. When I went in to the back room I told Isabel, our property sales manager to call the police.

"Luckily there were only three staff in the building including a temp and Isabel, who has only been in her job for a week.

"I asked the man if he wanted to go outside and get some cigarettes and I managed to keep eye contact with him until several armed police officers burst in and had him down within a second. They were absolutely brilliant.

"I was really just trying to keep calm and to try and seem like everything was normal and even sat him down and pretended I was helping him to look for a job. I was actually thinking we could all be killed."

A police spokesman said that the 'gun' had turned out to be a telescope with a handle on the end.

Bournemouth CID have confirmed that they are questioning a man in connection with the incident.

First published: August 28