Hunt for looting suspect who fled death-crash scene
Gardaí are searching tonight for a man who escaped a high-speed fatal car crash after looting a Co Monaghan petrol station.
One of the three-man gang was killed and another injured after they crashed the car they had hijacked in their efforts to evade gardaí.
Gardaí at Aclint in Co Monaghan had attempted to block the robbers escape after they rammed a petrol station near Carrickmacross between 5am and 6am with their jeep.
The gang’s jeep careered into the Garda patrol car leaving both vehicles immobilised.
A Garda spokesman said: “The cars were unable to move but the gardai were unhurt.”
The three men abandoned the stolen goods, hijacked a car and made off towards Ardee in Co Louth.
The stolen car was found crashed at around 7am on the link road between Ardee and the M1 motorway.
The dead man and injured man, who have not yet been identified, were taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
A spokesman for the hospital confirmed the injured man was now in a stable condition.
The third man hijacked a Ford Fiesta at the second crash scene, which was later found in abandoned in Darndale in north Dublin.
Gardaí are still searching for him in the city area.
