Shots fired in garage raid

FOUR shop workers were terrorised on Monday night when armed raiders fired two shots during a hold-up in Foynes, Co Limerick.

The three-man gang got away with the shop’s “float” money, a sum not believed to be substantial.

Gardaí were last night trying to track down the gang who entered Reidy’s filling station shop at about 10.45pm on Monday.

One of the raiders carrying a pump-action shotgun fired one blast into the shop ceiling as he entered the building. As they left he fired a second blast into the glass deli counter.

A woman who was sitting in her car in the forecourt when the first of the raiders approached was dragged from her car at knifepoint and brought into the store.

Moments later the two other raiders ran into the store, one armed with a pump-action shotgun and the other carrying a bag. After the first shot one raider ran behind the counter and put the contents of a number of tills into the bag.

Insp John O’Sullivan said that while the three spoke with foreign accents they communicated in English. The gang wore disguises.

Insp O’Sullivan said the gang parked their getaway car at Quarry Road and then went on foot to carry out the robbery.

The five people in the shop at the time were said to be very shaken by events.

Gardaí were trawling CCTV from a range of locations to try and identify the make of getaway car.

Elsewhere last night, two men — one in his 20s and the other in his 40s — were being questioned by Limerick gardaí in connection with the gangland murder of Mark Moloney near his home in Garryowen on April 5, 2008.

Mr Moloney, aged 40, was shot dead in the middle of the afternoon. The two men being questioned are suspected of withholding information about his murder.

Two days after the murder, James Cronin’s body was found in a shallow grave and gardaí believe he was involved in the Moloney murder and was shot dead by members of the McCarthy-Dundon gang, of which he was a member.

It is believed the gang leader ordered Cronin’s death as he feared he would give information to gardaí if arrested and questioned.