Six motorcycle-borne armed robbers looted Rs 20 lakh from a bank in Odisha’s Balasore district Tuesday afternoon in the second such incident in less than a month, police said.
Police officials said five robbers entered the UCO Bank in branch Chowki area of Bhograi block of Balasore district at 2 pm and threatened the bank staffers with guns while another waited outside.
”The robbers terrorised the 20 bank employees with guns and sharp weapons and looted cash and gold jewelries worth Rs 20 lakh,” Jaleswar sub divisional police officer Ankita Kumbhar said.
After committing the crime they fled from the spot. The branch manager then informed the police who said efforts are on to identify the miscreants on the basis of CCTV footage.
This is the second bank robbery in less than a month. Last week, Odisha police had arrested a 25-year-old readymade clothes seller of Bhubaneswar who had robbed two banks of Rs 12 lakh using toy and real guns to recoup the losses he suffered during the pandemic.
In another case, police in Cuttack city on Tuesday arrested a youth who made an unsuccessful bid to rob an SBI ATM after cutting it open with a gas cutter. A sensor alerted bank officials who called the police. The man was nabbed before he could decamp with the Rs 20.6 lakh in the machine, Cuttack DCP Prateek Singh said.
On Sunday, miscreants had looted Rs 28 lakh from an ATM of Punjab National Bank in Bhubaneswar after cutting it open with a gas cutter machine.
