Gardaí from Ronanstown, Dublin, foiled an armed raid yesterday after thieves carrying a sawn-off pump-action shotgun held up the Argos shop at Liffey Valley retail park, west Dublin.
The armed raiders used the shotgun to threaten two unarmed gardaí, shop staff and members of the public.
They finally hijacked a passing car before smashing through road safety barriers at a busy junction while trying to escape a pursuing patrol car.
The two raiders struck at around 12.45 p.m. when Liffey Valley was full of Christmas shoppers. But the raid went wrong after they revved their high-powered getaway motorcycle so hard it broke down.
One eyewitness, Ms Bernie Murray from Tallaght, was in Argos at the time. The mother of two said the scene was one of panic.
"One of them ran in with a gun and said: 'This is a raid. Everybody get down'. Everybody just lay on the floor. The guy seemed to know exactly where he was going. He ran straight into the back of the shop to a stores area, where the money was obviously kept. He was in there for around three minutes.
"Most of the customers were women, and a good few of them were crying. The other guy sat on the motorbike just at the entrance of the shop.
"He was revving it really hard all the time. Then he revved it so hard it cut out. The guy with the gun then ran out of the shop, and the two of them were trying to push the motorbike."
The dramatic events began when the raiders' motorcycle drove on to the Liffey Valley campus just before lunchtime. The men demanded money from Argos staff and left the premises with up to €100,000 in cash.
However, as the raid was unfolding gardaí received a 999 call alerting them to the hold-up. The two Ronanstown gardaí in a marked car were on a routine patrol in the shopping centre at the time.
They were alerted by radio and were at the scene in seconds. They arrived as the raiders were attempting to start their motorcycle. The raiders then abandoned it and ran a short distance to a nearby road.
They kept their shotgun pointed at the two gardaí before hijacking a passing car.
The driver, a woman believed to be around 40, was ordered out of the vehicle at gunpoint. The thieves then drove the car at speed through busy traffic, with the shotgun still pointed at the pursuing Garda car.
The raiders attempted to negotiate a roundabout at the Ark public house about 400 metres from the exit of Liffey Valley. They crashed though barriers and onto waste ground at the roundabout beside the entrance to the Shancastle housing estate.
The two men got out of the car and tried to flee the scene. The gardaí gave chase on foot.
Gardai later arrested one man, who was in custody in Ronanstown Garda station last night. He is in his 20s and from Tallaght.
Gardai recovered a shotgun and a sum of money from the crashed car.
One senior Garda source praised the actions of his two colleagues.
"We could have had an even more serious situation on our hands bearing in mind these two had a shotgun," he said.
The Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, also paid tribute to the two gardaí saying he was glad their professionalism had resulted in an arrest.
He declined to comment further for fear of prejudicing any criminal action against those responsible.
