A burglary gang has attempted to evade Gardaí by jumping into the Blackwater River in County Westmeath.  

It happened after Gardaí were called to a home at 5pm yesterday where a large amount of jewellery was stolen by a gang who fled the scene in a car – before a dramatic chase ensued.

Gardaí, who had a description of the vehicle, successfully predicted the direction it was fleeing and managed to position themselves ahead of it on the motorway.

Members of the public had also made calls to Gardaí reporting that a vehicle - whose passengers were wearing balaclavas - was driving dangerously through a number of townlands in the area.

In a statement posted to Facebook, they said “we sat and waited for the car to eventually pass [on the motorway] so we could get in pursuit”.

“Sure as be told, along it came,” said Gardaí.

“Having failed to stop when prompted, we pursued the car on the N4 and R148 through Kinnegad until we reached Enfield where the lads abandoned the car after a 35-minute pursuit and took off on foot.

“We called in backup from our Air Support Unit, Garda Dog Unit, and colleagues from the Mullingar Detective Unit and Trim Garda Station.”

Garda Dog Cooper led a detective to discover one of the three suspects around 9.30pm.

“The other two suspects were apprehended by two Trim Gardaí after the Air Support Unit guided them through thermal detection,” said the Garda statement.

“All three had tried to evade us by jumping into the Blackwater River.

“They were arrested, returned to a Garda Station in Westmeath where they were given dry clothes and examined by a doctor to ensure they were all well.”

The three men were detained for questioning.

Gardaí are now working on returning the stolen jewellery and attempting to establish links between the incident and a number of other break-ins that have been reported in the area recently.

Main image: A Garda checkpoint: Photo: Tom Douglas