robbers.

And Police have narrowed down their list of suspects after raiding a home in Hamilton Parish yesterday.

Task Force officers probing the two robberies on Monday burst into the home of one suspect, searching for crucial evidence.

Officers are particularly keen to trace the gun used in the raids on the Van Buren gas station in Flatts and the Garden Market grocery store in Devonshire.

An official Police spokesman would not release details of the investigation to The Royal Gazette yesterday.

He said: "Witnesses have been interviewed in the major incident room all day but there is nothing further to release at this stage.'' But it has emerged that Police know exactly who they are looking for after raiding the house yesterday, although no arrests have yet been made.

One officer said: "We have video footage and the Task Force hit a house yesterday.

"The suspect was not there but leads are being followed up all the time.

"What's particularly shocking about this job is that we know the trigger of the gun was squeezed three or four times.'' Victims told detectives they feared for their lives when the two masked men raided the gas station at around 3.20 p.m.

They said the main robber pulled the gun, pointed at station staff and pulled the trigger.

But their lives were saved when the weapon misfired as the mechanism became jammed.

The robbers grabbed cash and escaped on a blue or black motorbike.

And they brandished the gun again 30 minutes later in a hold-up at the Garden Market on Middle Road.

The pair, masked with red or orange scarves, pointed the gun at staff and demanded cash from the tills. They sped off on a bike, heading east.

One witness told The Royal Gazette : "I didn't get a really good look at them but one wore a white helmet and the other wore a black helmet.'' Acting Public Safety Minister Lois Browne Evans condemned the robberies during a late night speech in Parliament on Monday.

She said the raids were probably drug-related, adding: "Our sympathies go out to the two firms that were robbed.

"Planning to rob isn't done on the spur of the moment. It's for the purpose of getting money to buy and feed on a drug habit.'' She also warned against calls for the public to arm themselves against robbers, saying an increase in guns "would lead to mayhem''.

"Putting a gun in some owners' hands would be terrible,'' she said. "It would be the beginning of what happens elsewhere...in America and in Britain.'' Shadow Public Safety Minister Michael Dunkley said all MPs should stand together and say "enough is enough'' to hardened criminals, adding that violent crime was an "increasing epidemic''.

Michael Dunkley