Shooting leaves locals shocked and saddened

A deep sense of shock was overtaken by sadness last night as residents of Abbeyleix learned that Detective Sergeant John Eiffe had been killed by one of the gunshots heard in the town yesterday afternoon.

Locals described their disbelief at the sight of men carrying guns and the sound of gunfire just off the town's main street, at one of the busiest times of the week.

Staff members at Brophy's Newsagents, next door to the AIB branch which was the raiders' intended target, thought at first that firecrackers were going off.

The two women shop assistants said that after the first bangs were heard a young customer went to the window and said that two men were coming across the street carrying guns. "At first we didn't believe her and she said 'I am serious'", a staff member said.

It was in a car-park, attached to the local Catholic church, behind the newsagents shop that Detective Sergeant Eiffe was fatally injured.

Mr Robert Brennan, who with his wife, runs the Abbey Gate Bar, across the road from the bank, said he was at the back of the pub when he heard there was "a commotion out the front". He went out and someone said there had been an attempted bank robbery. There were a number of plainclothes garda∅ already on the scene. "The next thing I heard that somebody had been shot".

On Chapel Avenue, which runs between the bank and the newsagents, Mr Brennan said he noticed a Jeep parked across the street. It is understood this vehicle was used by garda∅ to prevent at least some of the raiders escaping in a silver Porsche which was still parked on the avenue last night.

It is believed the four raiders used at least three vehicles to get to the bank. One, a red Nissan Almeira, which was slightly damaged at the front, was parked in front of the bank last night on the main street.

The raiders did not succeed in gaining admission to the bank which had closed at 3 p.m., more than an hour before their arrival. The branch manager, Mr Jim Kingston, said that staff were devastated that a garda had died.