Irish police are searching for a Dublin gang who kidnapped a mother and her newborn baby on Monday.

A group of five thieves escaped with over $778,000 (€550,000) after they took the mother and her 10-week-old baby at gunpoint from the family home.

Warren Nawn, his partner Jean Marie Matthews and their newborn daughter Ella, were the target of the tiger kidnapping at their home in Drogheda, County Louth.

Nawn, an employee of An Post, Ireland’s post office group, was forced to take cash from the town’s main post office and drop it at a location after midday yesterday.

The Evening Herald reports that 100 police men have now been assigned to the investigation.

The raid began on Monday night when two masked, armed men burst into the family home. The men armed with an automatic weapon proceeded to gag and blindfolded the couple. It is understood they had been under surveillance for weeks.
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Sometime around 1am the raiders transported the family to an unknown location in their car where they were held overnight.

On Tuesday morning, the postal worker drove to work as usual. He informed staff that his family were being held hostage and that he needed cash.

Police were alerted shortly afterwards and a response team were called to action. After collecting the cash, Nawn then drove in the direction of Dublin and left the cash for them at a point along the route.  Once the cash was handed over, Mathews and the couples young baby were released unharmed at at Damastown, Dublin.

Police later found the couple’s car burnt out in County Meath.

The Justice Minister Alan Shatter has called for a full report into the matter.

"Based on initial information I have received, I have asked the Garda authorities to let me have a detailed report on the circumstances surrounding the incident including, in particular, whether agreed procedures for dealing with this sort of incident were followed,” he said.

He added: "I deplore the kidnapping of people and the subsequent robbery at a post office in Drogheda. This is one of the most vicious forms of crime and our sympathies go out to the victims."