RCMP are searching for a suspect who stole prescription drugs from a pharmacy in Queens County, N.S. Tuesday morning.

Police say an armed man entered the Pharmasave in Caledonia at about 10 a.m. and demanded prescription pills from a female employee.

“He was talking to one of my technicians,” says pharmacist Andrew Johnson, who owns the store. “What it looks like, he had a weapon of some sorts.”

Johnson says the man seemed nervous.

“He asked where the prescription drugs were and I showed him. He took what he wanted and he kind of made a beeline back up to the front of the store and then took off from there.”

Johnson admits pharmacies can be targets for both drug addicts and robbers.

“They do what they need to get the prescription drugs, really. It could be the money part of it, how much it sells for on the streets, or just feeding their own addictions.”

Johnson says the suspect wasn’t running when he left, but was walking very quickly. He was wearing sunglasses and a scarf covered his face.

RCMP say they first thought he fled the scene on foot, but now they believe he left in an older model SUV.

No one was injured.

As a precaution, police put nearby North Queens Community School in a hold-and-secure situation, meaning no one was allowed in or out of the school for two hours.

“It’s totally surprising that this happened for the area, especially in broad daylight, and especially in this location,” says Queens County RCMP Const. Laura Cormier-Jones.

School officials immediately took to social media to inform parents.

“We tried to get it out there as fast as we could so that parents would find out firsthand what was going on,” says Trish Smith, spokeswoman for the South Shore Regional School Board.

Police say they are looking for a white man in his early 20s. He is approximately five-foot-ten with a slim build.

He was wearing a dark-coloured, checkered hooded sweatshirt and sweat pants at the time of the incident and his face was covered.

Anyone with information about the incident or the suspect is asked to contact police.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell