By IRNA,
London : Nine people, including Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche, were held at gunpoint during an armed robbery in southern Ireland, Irish broadcaster RTE reported Monday.
Three men, armed with a sawn-off shotgun, were said to have held up staff and customers at the Marriott Hotel in Druids Glen, County Wicklow on Monday morning.
Seven members of staff and two customers, including Roche, were reported to have been held at gunpoint but were later released. No one was injured in the incident.
The robbers ordered the manager to take money from the safe and then locked the group into a room before making their escape. It is understood they got away with around Euro 20,000, RTE said.
The robbery comes after the government moved to head-off a collapse of confidence in Irish banks on Sunday night by offering a Euro 10 billion recapitalization plan that would effectively part-nationalize exposed institutions.