POLICE shot a 34-year-old man dead in a crowded shopping centre after a dramatic car chase across western Sydney.

Last night police said the man had been pursued from Penrith to Parramatta, where he was shot in a secluded hallway outside the food court at Westfield Parramatta.

The crime scene at the Parramatta shopping centre. Credit:twitter.com/@grantshow

''It appears that there was a sequence of events that started early this afternoon with what was an alleged robbery at knifepoint in the Penrith area that led to a pursuit of an alleged stolen vehicle by police down the M4,'' said Assistant Commissioner Denis Clifford from the north-west metropolitan command.

Assistant Commissioner Clifford said police stopped the pursuit after they were able to get a helicopter to track the car. But the car was involved in a collision on the M4.