Filor Firtina picked up a metal pole to defend herself against the burglars, who attacked JK Collections Jewellers at the Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre on Tuesday afternoon.

One of the bandits swung an axe at Mrs Firtina and petrified shoppers as she pulled down the shutter to prevent the thieves entering her store.

"I have my wits about me, I'm not a petite person and I think the adrenalin kicked in, I just wanted them out of my store and to go on their merry way," Mrs Firtina said.

"I was screaming 'Get out, I'll call the police'.

"One of them had the axe and was trying to get people away and then he turned to me with the axe to frighten me, smashed the cabinet and then looked at me as if to say that's enough."

Mrs Firtina was in the store by herself just before midday when the bandits appeared.

"They started banging on the side window with tools, I just noticed an axe in one of their hands. I was screaming at the top of my voice," she said.

"It was frightening, they were showing the axe to people. Security was trying to help.

"I was just petrified, I was screaming.

"I just remember grabbing my hand-held alarm, which makes a lot of noise, and trying to get the shutter down," she said.

"I just had to get the shutter down because I thought 'Oh my God are they going to come in?' I knew they were going for the stock.

"The police thought the racket I made, made sure they didn't come in."

The thieves escaped with jewellery from one cabinet, which the couple told Channel Seven could be worth up to $30,000.

But Mrs Firtina said the incident was devastating for the business, which she has owned with her husband Joseph for the best part of three decades.

"We're hard-working Australians. We've been here 28 years and it just makes me so angry that people can do this."

The four men smashed the front window of JK Collections Jewellers before fleeing in a vehicle.

The shopping centre was in lockdown for about an hour after the incident.

Shopkeepers said shoppers fled into nearby stores when the men began smashing the glass at the jewellers.

Loan Tran, who works a few shops down at Suji Kim, said shoppers had initially told her it was gunfire.

"After I while I knew it wasn't gunfire, I calmed all these ladies down," she said.

"I said, no it's OK, it's not gunfire, I can tell by the smashing, because it took so long, the window is very thick glass.

"I ran outside and tried to look for the security, and then I ran into pick up my phone to ring security.

"And they were still smashing. I came out, and I looked and then everyone was running. There was a lot of screaming, people running, and yelling.

"The security said it was only two minutes, but I said I don't think so. That cabinet is a very strong one."

Ms Tran said when she walked out of the store the cabinet, which she said was normally full of the less-expensive jewellery in the store, was empty.

"When I came out it was all empty, all the jewellery was gone. The thing is, that cabinet is not an expensive one. You can see Pandora and Diesel Watches. It's not diamond watches."

Earlier this year, Ms Tran said the nearby Prouds Jewellers was burgled, as was Coles.

Ms Tran said that a shopkeeper at Sussan, who was very shaken and went home soon after the burglary, said one of the men was looking at her.

"She said he's a bit chubby compared with the other ones, and possibly Asian," Ms Tran said.

Manager of the Noni B store in the centre, Monique, fought back tears as she recalled the robbery and said she was still shaken.

"I heard all this smashing and went straight out of the shop and was just standing there. I was worried they would see me," she said.

"They had masks around their heads like a scarf but you couldn't see their faces."

It's believed the thieves also used a metal stand they found inside the shopping centre to smash the store's glass window.

Linda Swanson, who works at Miller's fashion store, said she was with an elderly customer when she saw the men rush into the shopping centre.

"I heard some loud noises, turned around and saw some masked men bashing the window of the jewellers," she said.

"I don't know how they got in, I just saw them as they proceeded to bash the window and made a lot of noise."

Ms Swanson hid behind a poster until the offenders left.

Despite being "very loud and scary", she said it felt as though the robbery was over in a couple of minutes.

"It makes you very on edge," she said. "I just took [our customers] into the store a little bit."

She said she heard a woman in the jewellery store scream, before watching the thieves jump into a dark grey getaway car, which had been reversed up to the nearest exit.

"All I heard was that she was screaming. She [the female employee] was obviously very scared, very scared," Ms Swanson said.

No one was injured and police are investigating.

The shopping centre is on the corner of Police and Jacksons roads in Mulgrave.

It echoes a similar daylight robbery in March, when four thieves in balaclavas stormed a Michael Hill store at the Plenty Valley Westfield shopping centre in South Morang.

Other freestanding jewellery stores have also been targeted by thieves.

Holloway Diamonds outlets in Brighton and Canterbury three times this year. Toorak's IMP Jewellery has also been targeted twice. Thieves also smashed their way through jewellery stores in South Yarra and Elsternwick.