Woman hit in face and threatened with knife in shop raid
A YOUNG female shop worker was left terrified after a man punched her in the face during an armed robbery at a south Dublin convenience store.
CCTV images show the criminal striking the woman shortly after another raider held a large knife to her face.
Two members of the three-man gang then ransacked the till drawers, before escaping with around €700 in cash.
The robbery happened in the Centra in Oliver Plunkett Road, Monkstown, shortly after 9.45pm on Monday. Store owner Dave Curran (left) said there were two employees, a man and a woman, both in their 20s, in the shop when it was raided. Two of the raiders were armed with large knives. They burst through the supermarket’s front door and threatened the male employee, who was mopping the floor. “He threatened him with a knife and told him that, if he moved again, he would stick the knife in him,” Mr Curran said.
The gang then approached the counter of the shop, where the female employee was first threatened with a knife by one of the raiders.
Two of the raiders went behind the counter and the woman was hit.
The young woman stepped back as the two thugs prised the two tills open with their bare hands.
The two men were masked and wore navy and grey hoodies to hide their identity.
Their accomplice armed with a knife wore a black hoodie and tracksuit.
The incident lasted 30 seconds from the time the raiders entered the shop to fleeing the scene.
Gardaí said the suspects escaped in the direction of Lower Mounttown Road in Monkstown.
No arrests have yet been made in the case, which is being investigated by Dún Laoghaire gardaí, but it is understood that officers are investigating the possibility of a well-known local criminal being involved in the incident.
This is the second time the Centra in Monkstown has been the subject of an armed raid. Gardaí arrested a suspect after a robbery took place there last August.