A GANG threatened to shoot a pregnant mum-of-one and her young son in a terrifying burglary.

The raiders also told the woman they would "kick the baby out of you".

The thugs – armed with a gun, knife and hammer – broke into the apartment in Swords, Co Dublin around 6.15pm last Friday. The traumatised young mum told the Herald: "They put a knife to my throat and took my little boy out of his bed."

The woman was watching TV in the apartment where she lives with her husband when she heard a loud knock on the front door.

BALACLAVAS

"I didn't answer it but looked out the window and saw three men run past with balaclavas on," she told the Herald.

"They opened the door in the living room and a man immediately put a knife to my throat and dragged me into the bathroom.

"They told me to sit in the bath and closed the door. They also had cable ties with them but they didn't use them.

"All they kept saying was 'where's the money, where's the f**king money'. My husband wasn't here at the time and they knew that I was alone.

"They then took my little boy out of his bed and brought him into me in the bathroom."

The shaken husband told the Herald that the brutal gang terrorised his wife and son.

"They said they were going to shoot her and my child," he said. "They handed the child to her in the bath – maybe they were planning to shoot them both in the bath. Maybe they were going to wash away the evidence, who knows what was going through their heads.

"They also threatened to steal the child and take him away with them if she didn't tell them where the money was."

When the woman told the raiders that they didn't keep money in the house, they tore the place apart. "They totally ransacked the place. They turned the beds upside down and said if I don't give them money then they'd stab me," she said. "They said 'we'll kick the baby out of you'."

The ordeal – which lasted more than 15 minutes – finally ended after they found a small amount of money in a biscuit tin in the kitchen.

They also took some "sentimental jewellery", two mobile phones and a camera.

"They took less than €300 in total," she said. "I can't sleep and my boy wakes up with nightmares and cries a lot. We're definitely going to move out. Nothing like this has ever happened to us. It's disgusting. I don't have much money and we're just an ordinary couple.

"I'd appeal for anyone who saw anything to contact the guards. We're living in fear now and life will never be the same again."

Gardai believe that the shocking attack was carried out by an organised crime gang in north Dublin, the Herald can reveal.

Senior sources have revealed that the three-man gang who were wearing balaclavas and black jackets demanded to know where her husband was.

When they realised that he was not in the apartment, they "ransacked" the property in an attempt to find money.

JEWELLERY

A senior source explained: "This crew clearly thought there was money in the house. In the end they made off with a significant amount of jewellery."

The Herald understands that the horrific ordeal started when one of the masked thugs knocked on the front door of the apartment while his accomplices broke in through a rear patio window.

The ordeal lasted for a number of minutes and gardai were alerted after receiving a '999' call. The case is being investigated by Swords gardai and no arrests have been made yet.

hnews@herald.ie