A full-scale Garda hunt was continuing last night for a number of armed robbers who raided three banks in the Midlands yesterday afternoon.
The raids in Cavan, Meath and Westmeath all occurred within half an hour and within a 30-mile radius. A Garda spokesman said it is too early to say if they were linked.
The first occurred at the Ulster Bank in Belturbert, Co Cavan, at 2 p.m. The second and third occurred "in or around" 2.25 p.m., at the Trustee Savings Bank in Navan and at the Allied Irish Bank in Moate.
Immediately after the first raid, the Garda helicopter was called in to aid in the search for two masked men, believed to be armed, who had made off with an undisclosed sum of money from the Belturbert bank. It was in the air when the other two raids occurred but to date no arrests have been made.
The men escaped in a white Opel Corsa car, stolen in the Mountjoy area of Dublin on Thursday. Its registration number was 94 KK 2174 and when last seen was travelling in the direction of Clones. Anyone who may have seen it is urged to contact the gardai.
Twenty-five minutes later, two men with handguns entered the TSB in Navan and demanded cash. While the men were filling a bag with money one of the cashiers in the bank activated the alarm and the raiders fled. A short time later a silver coloured Renault car turned back from a Garda checkpoint on the Dublin Road in Navan. It is believed the raiders, who were in their late teens or early 20s and wearing baseball caps, were inside.
Simultaneously, two men armed with a sawn-off shotgun entered the AIB in Moate and made off with what gardai described as "a relatively small sum" of money. They made their getaway in a Honda Civic car, which had also been stolen in Dublin on Thursday.
The amounts taken in all incidents is believed to have been relatively small and while a Garda spokesman said it was "doubtful" they were connected, the possibility they were linked cannot yet be ruled out.
"It looks doubtful that they were connected unless they were very, very organised," he said.
He added it was not known if subversives might have been involved but this would be investigated.
The raids happened as a major Garda investigation into burglaries in the Midlands, codenamed Operation Astra, was continuing. A man arrested during the investigation in Co Kildare on Thursday afternoon was still being detained at Naas Garda station last night. A number of others are still being sought after a car was found abandoned in the locality.