A man charged with armed robbery tried to escape the scene of the crime in an Uber taxi, police have said.

Officers say they quickly caught Dashawn Terrell Cochran after he attempted to steal money from the Royal Farms convenience store in Baltimore, Maryland.

After taking a bottle of Tylenol medicine to the counter, the 23-year-old pointed a gun at one of the shop’s employees who took him to the till area.

He then fled the store, in the early hours of Wednesday 7 October, with an undisclosed amount of money. He was later tracked by officers from Baltimore County Police Department with the help of a K-9 unit.

After Cochran was spotted getting into the back of a silver Lexus, police managed to stop the vehicle. The driver told them it was an Uber car.

Police detained three people from the car, before releasing two of them.

A statement on Baltimore County Police Department’s website read: “It was determined that the driver and the second passenger in the vehicle had nothing to do with the robbery so they were released.”

John Wachter of the Baltimore County Police Department told ABC News that Cochran was charged with armed robbery, first-degree assault, second-degree assault and for theft of a sum less than $1,000.