While the ambassador, Colin Wrafter, and his wife, Aisling de Burca, were not present at the time of the attack, the guard at the gate was assaulted and stripped while the housekeeper had to lock herself in the 'panic room' while the raiders tried to force their way in through the patio door.

The armed gang arrived in two cars outside the gate to the Irish embassy at 1pm in the afternoon. Four of the men pistol-whipped the guard and forced him to open the gates while the others tried to force their way into the house.

However, a passing security patrol car disturbed the raiders, who fled before they could do more damage or harm to the embassy staff.

The security guard was taken to hospital but released the same day.

Ambassador Wrafter, who took up the post only last September, said the housekeeper was shaken. He said she phoned him from the panic room to say the attack was taking place. He said when he got to the embassy, the raiders had fled and the police had the situation under control.

The ambassador praised the professional manner in which the local police handled the situation.

But the attack, which occured last Thursday week, has caused serious concern in Dublin and among diplomatic staff in Pretoria.

The attack on the Irish embassy follows a spate of similar armed attacks on diplomatic staff along the 'embassy belt' in Pretoria, and there have been complaints that the police are not doing enough to protect embassy staff there.

The fact that the attack took place in broad daylight and in the heart of the smart Pretorian suburb of Waterkloof is understood to have raised serious concerns among diplomatic staff in Dublin and Pretoria.

The British and US embassies in Pretoria are just down the road from the Irish embassy, and fears are growing there that armed gangs believe they can do anything without fear of being caught.

Three weeks before the attempted robbery on the Irish embassy, six armed men attacked the Bangladeshi High Commission in Pretoria, making off with hundreds of thousands of rands' worth of cash, jewellery and computer equipment.