‘House raid was short, sharp and very frightening’

Two members of a highly dangerous gang were being held by gardaí last night after a horror attack on a family during which a teenage girl watched as a sawn-off shotgun was put to the head of her father after he was handcuffed and knocked to the ground.

Gerry Garvey, his wife Anne and their children, a twin boy and girl, aged 16, and twin boy and girl aged 14, were held hostage in their home at Pallasgreen, Co Limerick, before the gang of four men made off with a sum believed to be in the region of €4,000, which they took from a safe in the house.

The terror attack began at 9.40pm when the gang smashed their way into the house through a patio door at the rear of Sunville House which used to be an old, country-house restaurant.