Three armed bandits terrorised and robbed a family at Success on the East Coast of Demerara of a substantial amount of cash and jewellery on Sunday.

Beerdat Sooklal and his wife Dhanmattie Harrycharan told Stabroek News yesterday that the incident took place at around 10.35 pm. Beerdat said that he was held up in his yard by two of the bandits who were armed with pistols. The third one waited outside with a pump action rifle.

He said he was taken upstairs into his house by the bandits who forced him to lie on the chair. They then demanded money and jewellery from him. After he refused to tell them anything they tied him up, pushed him onto the floor and began kicking him.

Around this time, Beerdat said that his father-in-law, who had a stall on the road and who was outside heard the dog barking in the yard and began to shout. However, the third bandit who was waiting outside the gate quickly stopped him and brought him into the house with his rifle. He too was tied up and made to lie on the floor.

One of the bandits then went into the bedroom where Dhanmattie and her two children were sleeping and threatened to rape her eleven- -year-old daughter if she didn't tell him where she kept the money and the jewels. He also ordered her to strip and further threatened to shoot the daughter.

Another bandit came into the bedroom afterwards and the two of them began to ransack the room. Dhanmattie said that she begged them not to do anything to her daughter and agreed to surrender the cash and jewellery.

After the bandits collected the loot, they tied her up and told her that it was for their safety. On the way out, she said that they carried the tape deck with them. The police were called in shortly afterwards and are now investigating the robbery.

The family said that the bandits stole around $320,000 in cash and $40,000 worth of jewellery.

Police to step up patrols