A showroom of Reliance Jewels here was robbed by a gang of five armed men who decamped with all gold and diamond ornaments whose value was yet to be estimated.

The criminals reached the two-storied showroom on Netaji Subhash Road around 11am.

“Two youths entered the shop and started checking out some ornaments. Suddenly, they whipped out firearms,” said Jibesh Bhowmik, an employee of the showroom.

One of the youths forced the on-duty private security guard to get in. After some time, three other gang members entered the store and downed the shutter.

“All of them were wearing helmets and carrying firearms. After entering inside, they took out the helmets but had masks on their faces. They were communicating in Hindi and asked all our staff to stand in a queue,” narrated the employee.

Holding all 16 employees at gunpoint, the robbers cleaned both the floors out of the ornaments. The gang snatched the cellphones of the employees and forced them inside the pantry.

“They threatened us with dire consequences while brandishing the guns and left. After some time, we gathered some courage to come out and informed police about the looting,” said an employee.

The entire operation, sources said, took around an hour.

Senior police officers, including district police chief Sana Akhtar, reached the showroom. They spoke to the employees and gathered CCTV footage of the showroom and the neighbouring areas.

The gang members had come on two bikes.

Sandip Biswas, the chairman of Raiganj municipality, also reached the spot.

Murder cuffs

Alipurduar: Police arrested a daily wage worker for killing his ailing mother at Collegepara here late on Thursday night. Gaurav Biswas, 29, confessed to police that he throttled to death his mother Meera, 65, as he was agitated because of his mother’s groans during night hours.