A man remains at large after carrying out an armed robbery at an evangelical church service in Ballymun, Dublin.
At about 12pm on Sunday the man, carrying a sawn off shotgun, entered the Compassion Centre at the Ballymun Industrial Estate during a service attended by about 70 people, including many children.
He ordered members of the congregation to lie on the ground and proceeded to steal items from about 40 people.
He also pointed his gun at the heads of some members.
He warned the congregation that “you might meet your maker today,” a witness said, and told them not to follow him out of the building.
The ordeal lasted about 10 to 20 minutes, according to witnesses, before the man fled in a blue Fiat Panda car, which he stole from one of the church goers.
Gardaí recovered the vehicle a short distance away from where the incident occured but the man, who witnesses said spoke with a Dublin accent, has not been located.
Senior pastor John Eniola said the man had been threatening and screaming at members of the congregation.
“He just came in from the back holding a shotgun, with a balaclava on his face. He just came in. ‘Don’t mess with me, I’m not joking. Bring out your wallet, bring out your phones. If you mess I will shoot.’
“He was screaming, he was threatening. Then he took his gun and put it to the head of one of the guys and told him to take a bag and collect from everybody. He put the gun to his head and he was threatening to shoot.”
Missionary Daniel Tab said “everyone was stunned” when the man entered the church. “No one was paying attention to him but then he started swearing”.
Mr Tab told RTÉ radio the man started demanding money and valuables from the church goers and puts his gun to the backs of some of their heads and their stomachs.
“I have a two-year-old and an eight-year-old and I was just lying on top of them with my wife as well. I was dealing with them last night and today, talking them through it and walking them through it. It was terrifying for many people.”
He said that many members of the congregation are recovering drug addicts and that the assailant himself appeared unstable. “I think he was a desperate person and was just as nervous, or more nervous than us.”
The Compassion Centre has been in Ballymun since August 2014. It is an evangelical Christian centre which runs church services and community programmes.
