Police hunt gang after robbery, kidnap ordeal
Four members of staff at the centre in Upper Dunmurry Lane, outside Belfast, were confronted by four masked men armed with a shotgun and hand guns at 5pm on Wednesday.
Two of the male employees needed hospital treatment after an ordeal lasting more than four hours and involving as many as eight gang members.
Police said the gang tied up all four members of staff and taped the eyes of two of them. These two were driven to an unidentified location, where one was held in an outdoor shed or garage and the other taken into a house. He was threatened and repeatedly assaulted as the gang demanded to know where money was kept.
Police believe that at least one of the gang returned to the business premises and stole cash before returning to the house to make more demands for money.
Eventually the two employees were released in the grounds of a derelict house in Upper Springfield Road in West Belfast.
They raised the alarm and were taken to hospital, where they received treatment for minor injuries.
The two employees left tied up on the business premises were not injured.
Detectives have appealed for information from anyone who may have seen people acting suspiciously in the Upper Dunmurry Lane area at around 5pm, or who saw a suspicious vehicle in the Upper Springfield Road area just before 9pm.
SDLP councillor, Brian Heading, condemned the robbery and called on anyone with any information to contact the police.
He said: “It is simply intolerable that small businesses should be subjected to this sort of organised crime and brutality. Every member of the community, every single person, has a deep and abiding interest in putting the people responsible where they belong — behind bars. There must not be any hiding place for them or their likes.”
