Chandigarh, Aug 13 - Three armed men barged into a house here Thursday and holding the housewife hostage at gunpoint looted Rs.550,000 in cash, and valuables and jewellery, police said.

Three men in their early twenties entered a house in Sector 35. They overpowered the housewife, who was alone, and threatened to kill her if she raised an alarm, police said.

'Initially, when I saw them inside the house, I thought that they were my son's friends. But they put a gun on my head and demanded all the cash and jewellery that I had in my house,' said Nirmal Kaur.

'They took away Rs.550,000 cash, which my husband had brought yesterday (Wednesday) after a land deal, jewellery, a laptop and keys of our new car,' she added.

Before fleeing, the robbers tied Kaur's hands and feet and bolted her inside a bathroom.

At the time of the incident, Kaur's children had gone to college while her husband, a real estate agent, was in his office.

'We have registered a case against three unknown men and started our investigation,' Deputy Superintendent of Police (South) J.S. Khaira told reporters here Thursday evening.