An all-day investigation continued Thursday night into an early morning armed robbery at McDonald’s restaurant, 3621 W. Lincoln Way.

According to Ames police, a man entered the restaurant about 6:30 a.m. Thursday, pointed a gun at a worker, demanded cash and left on foot with the money.

McDonald’s employee Patricia Castillo called police at 6:42 a.m. to report the incident, said Sgt. Randy Kessel of the Ames Police Department.

By press time, Kessel said no suspects had been identified. He described the weapon used in the robbery as a “long gun” and said it was probably a shotgun or a rifle, not a handgun.

The gunman fled to the northwest, Kessel said, and officers were interviewing business owners and residents in the area.

“The detectives are working on some leads,” he said.

Late Thursday afternoon, teams of investigators were still questioning neighbors.

Mildred Morrissey, 3642 Story St., said she was asleep and did not find out about the robbery until much later.

“My house is pretty tight,” she said.

No one was injured during the robbery, and neither Kessel nor McDonald’s management would say how much money was taken.

“We don’t keep a lot of cash in our restaurants, so it was not a large amount,” said Michelle Rupiper, director of operations for Dasher Management, which owns the four McDonald’s restaurants in Ames.

The suspect was described as a white male, 5 feet 5 inches or 5 feet 6 inches tall, and he was wearing a blue bandanna over the lower portion of his face, a hooded beige Carhartt coat and a stocking cap, Kessel said.

The restaurant has never been robbed before, and Rupiper said employees had not reported any problems before Thursday.

Ames had not had a robbery since Oct. 13, 1998, Kessel said.