WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg family got a big scare late Wednesday night when a group of armed thugs barged into their home and robbed them at gunpoint.

A mother -- who asked not to be identified -- and her four children were at their home in the 100-block of McKenzie Street about 11 p.m. when they heard a knock on the door.

"I thought it was my son's girlfriend," she said. "It was three guys and a girl, they came into the house. One had a gun and the other one pulled out a machete. They wanted money and whatever else we had."

The woman said the man armed with the gun, which she described as a small handgun, was pointing it at her and her son.

"I just kept looking at the gun and hoping nothing happened," she said. "It was scary."

The woman said the man armed with the machete went upstairs where her two youngest children were, while another knocked over her TV and stole her kids' video games, her son's rings and some money she had been saving for Christmas.

"Everything just happened so fast," she said.

'Screaming at her'

At one point the woman's oldest son, who is 18, began wrestling with the gun-wielding thug near the door and managed to somehow break the gun in half, the woman said.

The machete-toting thug, who had since returned downstairs, then smacked the eldest son in the face with the weapon, slicing his lip.

The woman's 16-year-old son then in turn smashed the thug with a two-by-four, breaking the board in half and knocking down the attacker, she said.

All three of the robbers then ran away, the woman said, adding she managed to keep the girl in the house until police arrived.

"She was saying she didn't know them," the woman said. "I was screaming at her."

The woman said she didn't know her attackers and believes her home was chosen at random.

Police have arrested a 25-year-old man and a 17-year-old male in connection with the incident. Both have been charged with robbery, break and enter, carrying a concealed weapon and other firearm offences.

Police did not release the name of the adult male pending the arrest of a third suspect.