Three men have been arrested following an armed raid on a post office in Co Wicklow.
Raiders, armed with two handguns and a sledgehammer and dressed in white forensic suits and wearing face masks, burst into the busy store on Arklow’s Main Street, Co Wicklow at 9.30am.
The armed robbers ordered almost a dozen terrified customers and staff against the wall before making off with a substantial sum of cash.
The shaken postmaster, who did not wish to be named, said he heard a commotion while working upstairs.
“There was a lot of shouting and they kept saying ‘time is everything’ so they didn’t want to delay,” he said.
The gang fled in a blue van which was found abandoned nearby in the South Green area of the town beside the quay.
Three men were arrested 18 miles away in Ashford after a white van was stopped and searched at a checkpoint manned by armed gardai.
Gardai allege the gang had transferred the stolen cash between the two vans.
The postmaster said staff and customers were left shocked following the ordeal.
“There were four staff working behind the counter so they are all shook up,” he continued.
“I’m a bit shaken and but everyone was OK thank God. I’ve been running the place for over a year but this is the first time anything like this has happened.”
The three men are being held at Arklow and Wicklow garda stations under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
PA