This is the shocking moment a terrified family was ambushed and robbed by gunmen on their own front drive after being followed home from an airport by four thugs.

It is believed the unsuspecting driver had picked up his parents from the OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg and driven them back to their luxury home in the suburbs.

CCTV footage shows the family pulling into their drive and through the opening security gates, before a man armed with a pistol jumps out of the car that is tailing them and follows them in.

He aims the weapon at the stunned driver and threatens to shoot unless he opens the locked door and then grabs the keys from the ignition and begins robbing them.

An accomplice saunters coolly through the gates showing no haste - as if he is expected - and walks to the passenger side door and opens it and also demands valuables.

The occupants of the car, believed to be a married couple and perhaps their sons, are trapped inside and terrified of being shot in cold blood, so do exactly as they are told.

As they hand over watches, jewellery, wallets and other valuables, a third accomplice walks in calmly through the open gates to give neighbours the impression he is supposed to be there.

He opens a trailer hitched up to rear of the car and as the boot of the vehicle is opened the three men between them begin emptying a computer bag and suitcases out of it.

A terrified family was ambushed and robbed by gunmen on their own front drive

The family was followed home from an airport in Johannesburg by four thugs

CCTV footage shows the family pulling into their drive and through the opening security gates

The getaway driver then reverses onto the drive and pops the rear boot of the silver 2016 Hyundai Ascent, and waits behind the wheel as all the luggage is loaded onboard.

The three armed robbers have trouble fitting all the baggage from their victims' car and trailer in and are seen forcing it in the boot and then jamming it on the back seat.

One of the robbers spots a wallet from the boot and steals the cash and puts it in his pocket.

The terrified family can do nothing but cower inside their vehicle hoping that the armed robbers will not open fire, and watch helplessly as all their belongings are stolen.

An accomplice saunters coolly through the gates showing no haste - as if he is expected

The thieves raided the car, taking valuable from the boot, from the occupants themselves, and from a trailer hitched up to rear of the car

The robbers took jewellery, wallets, watches and other valuables as well as a computer bag and suitcases out of the boot

The family was threatened by one of the gunmen and told to stay in the car until the robbers had made their escape

In just minutes their car is empty and the first gunman returns to the drivers' side window to warn the occupants to remain in their vehicle once they have left.

The shocking robbery was over in just over four minutes, before the getaway car with the three men inside turned right out of the drive and raced off in the direction from which it came.

Distraught Claire Gropaul said yesterday:'Four armed robbers followed my husband from the airport after he picked up his family from their overseas trip.

'They asked them if they had guns or not and when they released they had no guns the robbers took their belongings' she said.

The video was released on You Tube by the Crime Intelligence and Community Awareness group (CICA) in the hope that witnesses would recognise the car or the gunmen.

The robbers escaped in a silver 2016 Hyundai Ascent after the getaway car came to fetch them

The three armed robbers have trouble fitting all the baggage from their victims' car and trailer in and are seen forcing it in the boot

The shocking robbery was over in just over four minutes, before the getaway car raced off with the stolen goods inside

The robbery happened at 7.20 on Sunday morning and police say that a car had gone to the OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg to pick up relatives returning from a Christmas holiday.

It is believed the gunmen watched the trailer being loaded up and then followed it back to the home address and pounced before the security gates could be closed shut.

It is the second shocking armed robbery captured on CCTV on the supposed security of a front drive in a month where victims were returning home in Johannesburg when they were ambushed.