Gardai, assisted by the Army, were last night continuing to search for a man, possibly armed, who was involved in an armed raid on the Bank of Ireland in Dunleer, Co Louth, yesterday afternoon during which at least two shots were fired. Two other men who hijacked a Garda patrol car at gunpoint after the bank raid, were arrested and detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
Gardai said they believed the men were from Northern Ireland, possibly Newry in Co Down.
The two men were last night transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda for treatment of injuries received in crashes, a Garda spokeswoman said.
Thermal imaging equipment on the Garda aerial unit helicopter and the Army's Alouette search and rescue helicopter were being used to try to find the third man. A search was also continuing for the two shotguns used during the raid and hijacking of the patrol car.
It was around 2 p.m. when two masked and armed men entered the only bank in the village of Dunleer, about eight miles north of Drogheda.
They demanded money from staff and discharged between two and three shots. However, they did not get any cash and left.
They got into a waiting car, driven by a third man, and headed for the main Dublin-Belfast road.
While trying to get on the main road the car collided with a lorry and the three occupants ran from the car.
One of them ran into nearby fields and had not been found last night. The other two pointed a gun at two gardai in a patrol car en route from Castlebellingham in response to the bank raid.
It is believed a shotgun was pointed into the face of the garda driving and both gardai were ordered out of the car. The men took the car, which was found abandoned a short time later in a laneway in the townland of Dunleer, a mile from the scene of the crash.
The men went through fields to a nearby house where they hijacked a bread van as it arrived to make a delivery. Gardai believe they wanted the van as it was unlikely to attract attention from gardai who had arrived from Drogheda, Dundalk, Navan and Ardee to take part in the search.
The driver of the van was forced to sit between the two men while it was driven through an armed Garda checkpoint in Dromin and then towards Ardee, Collon and Slane. In Collon it rammed a patrol car and in Slane it mounted the footpath, causing damage to a number of parked cars.
The van then headed eastwards towards Drogheda. Members of the armed Special Detective Unit based in Dublin joined local gardai. The van was forced off the road by gardai and two men were arrested and taken to Drogheda Garda station.
The driver of the bread van sustained injuries to his arm and face when the van was forced to stop and was brought to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
As the search continued for the third suspect last night, gardai were also investigating the identities of the men and the motive behind the attempted raid.
Last summer Dunleer was the scene of another major crime when an armed gang used a hijacked crane to steal cigarettes from a freight train.
Earlier this year seven men, four with convictions for republican offences, were arrested and questioned about the incident.