Mother and children escape death in gang’s car rampage

YOUTHS who collided with a mother and her three children during a cross-Border stolen car rampage could easily have killed someone, police said yesterday.

The victims were taken to hospital after the thieves hit their car in south Armagh while driving on the wrong side of the road. Drink was found in one of the cars which was recovered.

The same gang is believed to have forced a pensioner to drive to Dundalk, Co Louth, with a rope around his neck as part of a crime spree in which nine vehicles in counties Down, Armagh and Louth were damaged.

A young mother battled with a gang in a separate incident north of the Border when they tried to take her people-carrier with her two-year-old child still strapped in a seat in the back. An 81-year-old woman also suffered a serious leg injury when she was dragged from her car.

Newry PSNI district commander Bobby Hunniford said: “There is no doubt somebody could have been killed. These people were driving on the wrong side of the road when they hit a car containing a mother and her three children.”

The crime spree began when it was reported to police that a car, possibly stolen, had been set alight in Newcastle, Co Down, just before 4am yesterday.

Just over an hour later a silver Vauxhall Astra was stolen from Tullymore Forest Park outside Newcastle. The owner was asleep in a caravan when he was assaulted, suffering facial injuries, and had his car keys stolen.

Just after midday a woman was driving on the Newtownhamilton to Belleek road in south Armagh when a silver Vauxhall Astra collided with her car. The occupants of the Astra tried to hijack a VW Polo but failed, then seized a VW Sharan driven by a woman in her 50s. A lorry blocked the road, forcing the thieves to crash the Sharan in a gully.

They then hijacked a black Renault Laguna driven by a man in his 60s, who was assaulted, had a rope tied around his neck and was ordered to drive across the border to Dundalk.

Chief Supt Hunniford added: “It is inexcusable that these people can put another human being through that type of incident. They must have parents themselves and grandparents of their own and to think that they can put a person through this is just horrific.”

Police on both sides of the Border are working together to establish if the crimes were committed by the same group. They are believed to have southern accents.

Newry and Armagh Sinn Féin councillor Jimmy McCreesh visited the woman whose vehicle was almost stolen with her child in the back. “She struggled with the guys to try to fob them off but she was unable to do so. They proceeded in dragging her out of the vehicle on to the ground,” he said.

“She was screaming and shouting for help and then somebody else came along and she was able to get the young child out.”