A WOMAN has been arrested after cash stolen during an armed robbery was found in her underwear.

Her accomplice, a man aged in his 40s who is suspected of carrying out the robbery at a busy Tesco tried to evade chasing gardai and was eventually found hiding in a river in Dublin.

The woman was arrested in the getaway car, which was dumped after a chase through Finglas last night.

The drama unfolded at 9.40pm when a man wearing gloves, a balaclava with a grey hoodie and armed with what appeared to be a handgun, went into the Tesco Express supermarket in Enfield, Co Meath and forced a member of staff to open the tills.

He grabbed around €1,200 in cash before running from the shop.

An examination of CCTV showed the man jumping into a silver Ford Focus car with UK registration plates before speeding away.

No staff or customers were injured in the robbery but the staff in the shop were said to be shocked by the incident.

Around two hours later, members of the Dublin metropolitan region traffic corps were on the N2 near Finglas and had their Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) scanner activated by a silver Ford Focus.

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These devices scan the number plates of vehicles in traffic and match them against a database which contains details of vehicles with no tax or insurance, or have been flagged for other reasons.

The crew activated their flashing lights and followed the car, which matched the description of the one used in the earlier robbery.

“The car pulled in to the side of the road but as the gardai approached on foot, it was driven away at speed and crossed the central median of the carriageway,” said a garda source.

“The gardai got back into the patrol jeep and followed it down the N2 before it turned onto the old Finglas Road, then into Violet Hill Road and Violet Hill Park,” they added.

“The driver ran from the car and gardai arrested a woman with a London address at the scene. Some of the stolen cash was found in her underwear.

“Gardai chased the driver on foot until he ran into the Tolka River,” the garda source explained.

“A further search of the river found the man and he was ordered out and surrendered,” they said.

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The man, in his 40s, was later taken to Trim Garda Station for questioning while the woman, also in her 40s, was taken to Kells.

Both remain in garda custody today, detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

Online Editors