Illustration: some whiskey bottles

Police in Ireland are hunting a criminal gang that escaped with more than 15,000 bottles of whiskey and gin in an audacious daylight heist.

Armed with iron bars, the gang loaded the alcohol into two forty-foot (12 metre) trucks after tying up the employees at a warehouse on the outskirts of Dublin, police said Monday.

A total of 15,480 bottles of Jameson Whiskey were taken in the raid on the afternoon of November 14.

An unknown number of six-bottle cases of Bombay Sapphire gin and six-bottle cases of Jack Daniel’s whiskey were also stolen.

“Two employees were working at warehouse when two men entered the building armed with iron bars,” police said in a statement issued on Monday.

“They forced the employees to open the loading bay. At least three more men arrived and the employees were tied up.”

Police believe the alcohol will be offered for sale on the black market in the run up to Christmas.

The retail value of the alcohol is said to be hundreds of thousands of euros.