Woman recovering after kidnap ordeal

A 62-year-old woman abducted outside her home by a gang of masked men was today recovering after escaping her captors.

A number of men wearing balaclavas snatched the woman and bundled her into the rear of a van outside her home in Whitehall, north Dublin, at around 6pm last night.

The kidnappers drove the white van, which gardaí say was stolen last month in Glasnevin Industrial Estate, to south of the city where the woman was held for some time.

In the early hours of the morning she managed to break free and made her way to Dun Laoghaire Garda Station, where she alerted officers shortly before 5am about her 11-hour ordeal.

Detectives at Whitehall Garda Station are trying to retrace the movements of the van, with a registration plate 98 OY 1553, during the night and early morning.

There have been a number of so-called tiger kidnappings in north Dublin over the past few months in which a bank or supermarket employee is held by armed gangs overnight and forced to hand over cash from his or her place of work.