Post boss pays ransom as family held hostage

Armed robbers held a terrified family hostage until a Post Office boss handed over tens of thousands of pounds in ransom money, it was revealed tonight.

A gang of four or five men burst into the house in the Old Park area of Belfast last night.

They seized a man and two children and took them to a house in Antrim, about 15 miles away, where they were kept captive overnight.

The youngster’s mother, who works at a nearby Post Office branch, was ordered to empty the contents of a safe before they would be freed.

A police spokeswoman said: “This morning the woman was forced to go to her place of work and remove a substantial amount of cash. The three other family members were subsequently released.”

It is understood they were freed on a stretch of road just outside Antrim.

Police were unable to confirm suggestions that splinter republican paramilitaries carried out the operation.

The hostage-taking comes weeks after terrorists carried out a £1.2m (€1.7m) cigarette heist at a tobacco warehouse in Belfast.

The gang behind that robbery held a family from the Ardoyne district, a republican stronghold, while the father was forced to go to the Gallaher plant where he worked.

Chief Constable Hugh Orde has said republican paramilitaries carried out the raid, but refused to say whether the IRA planned it.

With unionists demanding a halt to all Provisional violence and crime before agreeing to revive the Stormont power-sharing administration, a report has been sent to the Independent Monitoring Commission ceasefire watchdog.

Their next assessment, expected within weeks, will be crucial to attempts to rescue the Northern Ireland peace process.