NO APP FOR THAT: The phone is destroyed, but its owner won't be complaining, after the device stopped a bullet which was meant for him.

A Florida petrol station clerk dodged a bullet as his cellphone absorbed the round fired by a fleeing robber.

The clerk didn't even realised he had been shot until he experienced chest pains while being interviewed by police, and discovered the bullet lodged in the shattered screen of his HTC cellphone, which had been in his pocket.

The close call happened on Monday afternoon (local time) in Winter Garden, a suburb of Orlando, Florida.

Winter Garden Police BATTERED: The bulge at the back of the phone, caused by the bullet.

The robber entered the petrol station, showed the clerk the revolver and demanded he open the safe, police said.

When the clerk couldn't open the safe, the robber ordered a second clerk to try open it, but with no success.

The robber fled, firing one round which hit the first clerk.

Winter Garden Police SHOOTER: The man who police say fired the shot.

The worker was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

- AP, Stuff