"One suspect then displayed a black firearm in his waistband before both individuals fled the area," police said.

"One suspect then displayed a black firearm in his waistband before both individuals fled the area," police said.

Police are investigating after two masked individuals, one reportedly armed with a gun, targeted a children’s lemonade stand in South Boston on Wednesday afternoon, leaving young vendors shaken and out roughly $50, authorities said.

Officers were called to the area of West Ninth Street shortly after 4:44 p.m., where they found the children who reported they had been robbed, Boston police said. 

The children told police that the suspects had “made several passes by the stand before approaching and asking whether Apple Pay would be accepted as payment,” police said. Investigators said cash was taken before the children could react. Before “the victims could respond, the suspects grabbed” a cash box, and “one suspect then displayed a black firearm in his waistband before both individuals fled the area,” police added.

Jennifer Byrne, the mother of one child, said she was at work when she received the call and tried to make sense of what happened. “My daughter called me. I’m at work. She was in hysterics, crying, saying, ‘Somebody put a gun to us and took all of our money,’” Byrne told NBC Boston.

She also said she noticed earlier suspicious activity nearby, stating, “They noticed two kids with masks over their face across the street. They kept coming back and forth.”

City Council member Ed Flynn condemned the robbery, calling it deeply disturbing. “There is little I can think of more disturbing than the innocence of a children’s lemonade stand being violated by an armed robbery,” Flynn said in a statement.

He said the city cannot ignore the incident or treat it as minor. “The thoughts of our entire community are with the young children and the families who had to endure this terrible and senseless ordeal,” Flynn said. “When something as serious as this happens, we cannot downplay or ignore it.” He added, “We desperately need more police officers and to redouble our community policing efforts,” and said, “There is simply no one that envisions a place where a children’s lemonade stand is robbed at gunpoint as the safest city in America.”