One man has been killed and another seriously injured in a single vehicle collision following a raid on a garage in Monaghan early this morning.
The two men are understood to have been part of a three-strong gang who used a four-wheel drive vehicle to ram the petrol station at Broomfield on the Carrickmacross to Castleblaney Road between 5 and 6 a.m.
The vehicle then left the scene at speed before being intercepted by Gardai at Aclint where the patrol car was rammed.
Both vehicles were immobilised in the crash and the men leapt from the jeep and hijacked a car in the town before making off in the direction of Ardee.
The stolen car was subsequently discovered crashed on the link road between Ardee and the motorway at approximately 7.00 a.m..
The dead man and the injured man who have not yet been identified were removed to Lourdes Hospital Drogheda.
The third gang-member hijacked another car which has been found abandoned in Darndale in north Dublin.
Investigations are continuing.