€4m recovered from Bank of Ireland raid

Gardai have recovered an estimated €4m from the robbery of the Bank of Ireland yesterday.

Seven people are still being questioned about the kidnapping of a family in Co Kildare and the robbery of over €7.5m.

Five cars and a van have been seized, ten houses have been searched, while a house in Phibsboro has been sealed off.

Five of those in custody are known to gardaí and are believed to be connected to a Dublin criminal gang.

One man was arrested following a chase along the M50 and two bales of packed cash were found in the car.

Four others were arrested in a car in Monk Place and in Great Western Square in Phibsboro and the other two were arrested in a house on Great Western Villas, also in Phibsboro.

Loose money was also found in a car in Phibsboro.

The seven are being questioned at Blanchardstown, the Bridewell, Finglas, Pearse St and Mountjoy Garda Stations.

They were arrested on suspicion of possession of firearms yesterday at Badger Hill, Kilteel - the Smith family home.

The house in Kilteel remained sealed off today.

This morning a trauma counsellor called but Shane Travers' girlfriend Stephanie Smith, her mother Joan and Joan's five-year-old grandson are being cared for elsewhere.

Garda forensic specialists have also been examining a house in Great Western Villas which may have been used by the gang as a safe house after the robbery.

Yesterday morning, an armed gang forced a Bank of Ireland employee Shane Travers to withdraw over €7m from the Bank of Ireland on College Green in Dublin, while his partner, her mother and a five-year-old boy were being held hostage.

The bank employee handed the money over to the gang at Clontarf DART station.