Gardai have confirmed that they are following a definite line of inquiry into an incident in which a man was beaten about the head by an armed gang who burst into his house in Tarelton outside Macroom in mid-Cork.
The incident happened at around 2 a.m. when the four-man gang burst into the house, dragged the man from his bed and began beating him with the butt of a shotgun as they demanded money from him.
The man's partner managed to jump from a first-storey window and fled to a neighbour's house to raise the alarm. The neighbour returned with his legally held shotgun and scared off the gang with a warning shot.
The couple - who had just moved into the house a week earlier - were taken to Cork University Hospital for treatment.