An English couple who had just arrived in Ireland on holiday are recovering in hospital in Co Louth after they were attacked with axes and their camper van was stolen.
The 56-year-old woman was said to be in a serious but stable condition.
Her 61-year-old husband was said to be "stable" by a Health Service Executive spokeswoman. The woman's injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. Both are in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
A three-man gang broke into the camper van at about 4am close to the former customs post at Carrickarnan on the main Dublin to Belfast road. The couple are from Skegness in Lincolnshire.
They appear to have been assaulted with axes before the gang robbed them and hijacked the van. It was found on fire at the Drumintee road, Meigh, in south Armagh at about 5.30am.
The PSNI was called to the incident and a police spokesman said: "A navy blue Volkswagen Passat with two males on board drove through a vehicle checkpoint. Police stopped the car, arrested the two males and recovered a number of items from the vehicle that have since been removed for further examination."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, who is a TD for the area, said he was "completely shocked to learn of the savage and mindless attack on our English visitors near the Border.
How anyone could carry out such a senseless act on a middle-aged couple is beyond me".
The attack, Mr Ahern said, would reflect poorly on a lovely part of the world. "As a community we have and must do all in our powers to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice . . . I hope the perpetrators are brought to justice, The Minister said.
"This vicious attack bears all the hallmarks of other incidents of carjackings along the Border where the perpetrators flee from one jurisdiction to the other," Mr Ahern added.