Gardaí were last night searching for a man who escaped following a dramatic chase after an early morning robbery at a filling station and shop on the main N2 Dublin/Derry road.
A man from Darndale in Dublin died after a hijacked car he was driving went out of control and crashed at Charleville on the outskirts of Ardee, Co Louth.
A second member of the gang was injured in the crash and was removed by ambulance to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
He was being watched by armed gardaí at the hospital last night but was too seriously injured to be interviewed. Detectives are hoping to speak to him today.
A third gang member remained at large last night and was being sought. Gardaí believe they know his identity.
He escaped from the scene of the fatal crash after he hijacked a car owned by a nurse who was passing by and stopped to help the injured gang member.
He drove in the direction of Dublin and the vehicle was later found abandoned in the Darndale area.
Gardaí say the three men are all from the Darndale area. They are well known to gardaí on the north side of the city. The dead man was named last night as Michael Brady from Belcamp, beside Darndale. He had a string of 40 previous convictions. These included convictions for armed robbery and car hijackings.
A Garda source said while he was well known to them and was considered a violent criminal he was not a major gangland figure. The robberies which he carried out usually involved the use of baseball bats or iron bars, rather than firearms.
Yesterday's drama began at 7.10 a.m. when the three-man gang pulled up in a jeep at McCaughey's filling station and supermarket at Broomfield between Castleblayney and Carrickmacross in Co Monaghan.
They purchased €7 of fuel for the vehicle which was stolen earlier in Beaumont, Dublin. After paying they produced an iron bar and forced their way into the 24-hour outlet.
Ms Mardeen McCaughey, a daughter of proprietor, Mr Raymond McCaughey, who was serving in the premises along with another female assistant Ms Michale O'Reilly, struggled with one of the gang as the cash register was snatched and they also tried to grab more cash in the office area.
Ms McCaughey said yesterday: "It was a bit of an experience but I wasn't prepared to let them get away." Neither of the women was injured in the incident. The raiders fled with around €250 as two motorists pulled into the petrol station.
The gang fled in the direction of Dublin. Gardaí at Carrickmacross were alerted after a description of the vehicle was circulated to all Garda cars in the area.
When the jeep was subsequently intercepted on the N2 near Carrickmacross the raiders rammed a Garda car after turning to pursue it when the Garda vehicle passed them on the opposite side of the road. There were two gardaí in the car. Both escaped injuries but their car was immobilised.
The stolen jeep was also damaged in the impact but the gang continued at high speed through Carrickmacross towards Ardee.
On the way to Ardee they used the jeep to force another car to a halt at Aclint, and after assaulting the driver they took his car and drove off. The driver of the hijacked car, a 64-year-old man, required a number of stitches following the incident.
The gang sped through Ardee but the hijacked Nissan Almera crashed at a roundabout near the M1 motorway where one of the gang was fatally injured.
One Garda source said the car almost careered down the embankment onto the motorway.
Insp Jim Marks, of Carrickmacross Garda station, who is heading the investigation, said: "They were obviously on their way back to the city when the crash happened. A full investigation is continuing."