Two men armed with a handgun and a hammer held up staff at a post office in Co Tipperary this morning.
A member of the public gave chase to the raiders as they left the post office in Cloneen, near Fethard.
The pair fired a number of shots, according to a Garda spokesman before leaving the scene on motorbikes with an undisclosed sum of money.
The spokesman said there were no reports of injuries during the raid and no arrests had been made.
It is understood a motorbike believed to have been used by the raiders was later found dumped on a country road a few miles from Cloneen.
Deirdre Noonan, whose family have run the post office for three generations, was working in the shop during the raid.
“Two men walked in, they’d a gun and a hammer and they told me they would kill me if I pressed any of the panic buttons or alarms,” she said.