Four quizzed in NI hostage-taking robbery probe

Four men were questioned today about a £300,000-plus (€450,000) robbery in Northern Ireland after a bank official’s family was held hostage.

They were detained when police searched houses in Strabane and neighbouring Sion Mills, Co, Tyrone.

A number of items were also taken away for forensic examination, but it is understood none of the money seized by a gang - suspected to having links with the INLA - has been recovered.

The robbery took place on July 9, the morning after a group of armed and masked men broke into a house where a bank official’s family was held hostage overnight.

He was then taken to the bank in the town’s Abercorn Square and ordered to hand over the cash.

The family was freed unharmed.

Two cars, a silver coloured Toyota Corolla and a red Vauxhall Corsa, believed to have been used by the gang were later found burned out in the republican Ballycolman estate.

Reports of suspicious activity around the same time at Glenfinn Park, Laurel Drive and Summerhill Court were also investigated.

The four held today were also being questioned about unlawful imprisonment and kidnapping.