A U.S. Postal Service employee was shot in broad daylight yesterday after two young men attempted to rob him during his morning route through the Mexican War Streets on the North Side.

Ken Gournic, spokesman for the Pittsburgh Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, said the two men sought money, not mail, and got neither.

But because their victim is a federal employee, the two could face spending up to 20 years in federal prison, according to U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan.

The 49-year-old letter carrier, whose name was not released, was emptying a green relay box on North Taylor Avenue and Palo Alto Street around 10:20 a.m. when the two men, one armed with a handgun, approached him and demanded money.

The postal worker had no money.

He ran east down North Taylor with his mail bag as one of the men fired at him four or five times, hitting his right hand and the tire of a sport utility vehicle parked on the street. He turned into a courtyard, where someone sitting in a van told him to lie down out of view in a flower bed to wait for an ambulance to come, Lt. Kevin Kraus of the Pittsburgh police said.

The two assailants fled empty-handed down Palo Alto toward West Park, and as of last night, remained at large. Witnesses said the two were between 16 and 19 years old and wore dark clothing and large puffy jackets.

All of the mail the employee was carrying was recovered and delivered, Mr. Gournic said.

The victim, a 20-year veteran of the postal service, was filling in for another carrier on the route and normally works elsewhere in the city. He suffered a hand wound and was expected to be released from the hospital yesterday.

Because the victim is a postal service employee, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is investigating, along with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and will seek to have the assailants prosecuted under federal law, meaning the crimes could carry heavier penalties, Mr. Gournic said. The investigation is the Pittsburgh office's top priority and all of its 28 employees will be involved in the investigation "in some way," said Mr. Gournic.

"We take this kind of crime -- an armed attack on one of our employees -- very seriously," he said.

Ms. Buchanan said the two men will likely be prosecuted in federal court.

"In most cases, if a crime can be proven, it is prosecuted in federal court," she said. But she added "it's too early to make that determination because we're still in the process of gathering the facts."

Mr. Gournic said attacks on postal service employees are "infrequent" and that, in the six years he's been in Pittsburgh, this is the only second time a postal worker here has been shot.

Five years ago, postal carrier Clayton J. Smith was killed in Ingram when 9-year-old Savon Burnette fired his mother's gun at a tree and accidentally hit Mr. Smith. Savon was not prosecuted, but his mother, a convicted felon, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for lying to prosecutors and for violating a federal statute that prohibits felons from possessing guns.

Residents of this small cluster of North Side streets worry that gun violence in their neighborhood is increasing. Two weeks ago, 27-year-old Dion McIntosh of the Strip District was shot and killed in front of Manteca Bar at Jacksonia and Monterey streets, roughly two blocks from yesterday's incident.