Fire threat made in raid ordeal

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The manager of a west Belfast off-licence is recovering after being doused with petrol and threatened with being set alight during a robbery.

The incident, involving two men, happened at the Springfield Road shop early on Sunday morning.

One was armed with a hand gun and the other had a claw hammer. They told him to open two safes and the till.

When he said he could not, he was hit with a gun, doused with petrol then threatened with being set on fire.

He opened them and the thieves escaped with an undisclosed sum of cash through a door at the back of the shop into an alleyway.

They took the shop's security camera and CCTV monitor with them.

The premises had been targeted in a ram raid before and bollards were put in front of it.

Sinn Fein councillor Marie Cush said there had been an increase in robberies of small businesses and delivery drivers, and called for a tougher line from the judiciary.

"People are being arrested and then are being let out the next hour," she said.

"There doesn't appear to be any deterrent, especially on horrific and vicious attacks like this - a man could have quite easily lost his life just going out to do a day's work."