In a brave and selfless gesture, a post office worker in Moscow has fended off armed robbers attempting to make away with a million rubles ($30,000), ensuring local pensioners will not go without as winter bites.

Two masked gunmen stormed into the post office soon after the money had been dropped off by cash transit collectors. The criminals shot the chief clerk and demanded she hand over all the cash.

The wounded woman – the head of the post office – managed to hide the bag with the million roubles behind her back. She then took 50,000 rubles ($2,000) out of the cash register and gave it to the robbers, who escaped.

The chief clerk is being treated in hospital for her injuries. Some reports suggest one of her colleagues was also hurt in the raid.

The money so bravely defended by the post office clerk consisted of people’s pensions.If not for her courage, hundreds of local pensioners would have been left without monthly pay.