Canterbury Police have released CCTV footage of a restaurant employee who appears to ignore a masked man with a gun in New Zealand.

Footage of the incident, which occurred on May 28 in Christchurch, shows a man with a weapon walking into a restaurant on Papanui Road.

The man approaches the counter dressed in black and appears to be holding a gun.

But the employee continues working, serving another customer before walking out towards the back of the shop.

The apparent gunman leaves the restaurant.

The video has been viewed more than 45,000 times and has been shared over 400 times from the Canterbury Police Facebook page.

The incident was only recently reported to police and nothing was taken, according to local media outlet Stuff.co.