HAWTHORNE, Calif., Aug. 23 – A gang of Charles Manson family was in custody Sunday following a 25-minute gunbattle between police and a group of male and female hippies raiding a gun shop for weapons.

Three suspects – including two women – were wounded in the gunfight Saturday night, police said They were among five persons arrested, four of them Manson Family members. One suspect escaped, police said.

Manson, condemned to the gas chamber for seven murders and now on trial for two more, testified he was arming his cult to prepare for a civil war between blacks and whites. The members of the tribe still free have frequently said they would try to liberate Manson.

Police said five members of the group burst into the Western Surplus Store near closing time and held two customers and three clerks at gun-point while they began cleaning out the store’s stock of guns.

Authorities said the group had stacked more than 100 weapons inside a waiting van and were gathering up about 40 more when a patrol car arrived, alerted by a silent burglar alarm.