A Craig family is counting its blessings despite losing some $600,000 in cash and jewellery after four bandits armed with handguns invaded their home early yesterday morning as they slept.

The men, armed with pistols, gained access to the two-storeyed-home of the Lakhan Persaud Satrohan by mounting several empty drink cases on a metal chair, which allowed them access to the upper-storey's veranda. Once there, they removed several panes from louvre windows at the front of the home to enter the upper flat of the building.

A release from the police yesterday said the men had entered the First Street, Craig, East Bank Demerara (EBD) home by breaking open a door to enter the house where they stuck up family members.

According to the police, the men proceeded to assault a female family member, even as they grabbed a quantity of jewellery. "During the process, the men discharged six rounds one of which grazed the right thumb of Lakhan Satrohan," the release said.

When Stabroek News visited the shaken family yesterday, Rajmattie Satrohan said the men repeatedly fired shots at her husband as he tried to confront them even as they held their children hostage in the upper flat of the home and while he attempted to follow them as they departed.

"Dem fire two shots as me husband try to open the back door," Rajmattie said, adding that her husband was grazed on the thumb by a bullet.

According to Rajmattie, she and her husband were awakened at around 3.10 am by the screams of their daughter.

They ran to the back steps and her husband instructed her to bring his cutlass when he saw strange people in the upper flat. Not knowing how many bandits there were, she said her husband attempted to engage the men when they fired the first barrage of shots. "With dat them bring down one ah we daughter in front ah them with gun to she head," Rajmattie said.

However, once they reached the bottom flat they snatched the woman and immediately began demanding gold and money. With a gun pointed at her head Rajmattie relented and gave the bandits all the jewellery she owned which was stored in a cup, telling them to take it and go.

But they continued to demand cash and threatened to shoot the mother of four; so she told them the money was locked in a shop which the family operates at the front of the yard.

Rajmattie made her escape while pretending to locate the keys and took refuge among some plant pots in the yard, lying flat on her stomach. This angered the men and they seized and threatened her daughter still demanding cash.

According to Rajmattie, they then ransacked her bedroom including a wardrobe in which she had cash among other things.

Once satisfied that they had everything they wanted, they departed using the Satrohans' young daughter as cover until they had escaped over the front fence.

They then fled north along First Street, before turning west heading for the main road. They were on foot.

The Satrohans' elder daughter Jasmin, who went to stay with her parents after her home was flooded out on Regent Street told Stabroek News she and her sibling who had been sleeping in the upper flat of the home, had been placed to lie on the floor with guns pointed at them after the men had stripped them of their jewellery.

She had taken off her rings and bangles and given them to the men after she awoke and saw them in the house.

Apart from terrorising, the men also physically assaulted the Satrohans with Rajmattie being hit on the head with the butt of a gun and her son receiving a blow to his chest.

It was the first time that the family had been robbed after residing in the area for 21 years.

However, Satrohan's brother Hardat, a businessman who also resides in the neighbourhood at Old Road, Craig, had been robbed twice last year.