Gardai are satisfied that most if not all of the money taken by an armed gang in a raid on a security van in Dalkey, Co Dublin, last night has been recovered.
The gang - believed to have been using radio monitors - were aware that local gardai were close on their trail and abandoned the money after their get-away car broke down.
The gang may also be part of one of the dissident republic elements. They were armed with at least three Kalashnikov assault rifles - the type normally used by republican paramilitaries.
Garda ballistics experts are today examining spent cases and bullet fragments taken from the scene of the robbery and from outside St Paul's Church in Glenageary, where the gang abandoned a hijacked red Saab.
The robbery happened as a Securicor van was making its way south out of Dalkey along Sorrento Road. At the junction with Nerrano Road the roadway was blocked by a white transit van which reversed into the front of the security van.
A blue flat-back lorry with two steel girders protruding out from the back, which had been parked facing the village, was then reversed into the back of the Securicor van smashing open its driver-side rear door.
Both the transit van and flatback vehicle were stolen in Dublin in the past two months.
A local man, Mr Patrick Dunne, said: "They put the white van across the road and then they slammed into the back of the [Securicor] van from the opposite side.
"They [the robbers] appeared to have trouble with their car. I spoke to one man who said he saw them pushing it. It certainly appeared to be going badly."
The get-away car, a white Ford Granada, appears to have failed to start and may have rolled downhill along Nerrano Road to the junction of Coliemore Road at Coliemore Harbour. The gang abandoned the car and stopped a red Saab being driven by a local man accompanied by his wife. A gang member opened fire on the driver, who was taken to hospital, but his injuries were described last night by the Garda Press Office as "not serious". It appeared late last night the man might have been cut by broken glass.
The gang then drove back towards Dalkey, leaving most of the stolen money in the boot of the Granada.
The senior detective in the case, Supt Martin Donellan last night said it appeared the gang abandoned the cash as they were aware gardai were very close behind them.
Chief Supt Pat Culhane pointed out that detectives from Dalkey Garda station were on the scene of the robbery within a minute of the first report.
"The first call was at 4.38 p.m. and officers were on the scene at 4.39 p.m. This was a very well-laid plan by these robbers who were very heavily armed. It is fortunate there were no serious injuries."
Chief Supt Culhane said it was clear the gang was prepared to open fire on gardai.
The officer in charge of Dublin gardai, Ass Commissioner Jim McHugh, chaired a conference in Dun Laoghaire Garda station last night.
Senior gardai indicated that they strongly suspected the involvement of republican paramilitaries.
It is known the dissident republicans have some support in south Dublin and two of the gang that were arrested in the attempted robbery in May last of another Securicor van in Ashford, Wicklow, were from south County Dublin not far from the scene of last night's robbery.
Gardai recently expressed concern late last year that the dissident republicans were considering renewing their campaign in the new year. An armed robbery to raise funds was also thought a possibility as the dissidents have no recourse to the front businesses and other organised "fund-raising" structures of the Provisional IRA and other established paramilitary groups.