Ten armed men robbed the Rockfort, east Kingston office of Cool Petroleum Ltd., formerly Shell Company Limited, on Tuesday morning.

A female security guard on duty was also raped by two of the men during the robbery.

The incident occurred about 4:30 a.m. when the men gained entry to the plant by cutting their way through the fence at the back of the premises.

Winston Ormsby, operations manager at Cool Petroleum Ltd., told The Gleaner that the men then held up one of the six security guards on duty, who was unarmed, while the others proceeded to cut the locks on the door of the warehouse.

Shoot-out

The security guards then activated an emergency panic alarm, which alerted the response team, which arrived shortly on the scene and engaged in a shoot-out with the men. But this was after their colleague was sexually assaulted by the two men.

The police, who were also alerted, found several spent shells on the compound.

Mr. Ormbsy said several items, including lubricant oil (engine oil), were stolen from the plant.

"Most of the goods had been recovered from bushes behind the yard," he said. "We are now doing stocktaking to ascertain exactly what was actually stolen."

Deputy Superintendent Michael Ellis, head of crime for the East Kingston division, said the matter was being investigated.

Mr. Ormbsy said the company was very concerned about the welfare of the security guard and the level of invasion.

"We have been here for 60 years and we never had this kind of scenario so we are not accustomed to this," he said.

"Certainly we will be doing things, it will not be business as usual."

He said the company would also be engaging in dialogue with the community.