Iraq robbery goes wrong when vault keys not found

Central Asia News.Net
Monday 14th December, 2009

Thousands of dollars have been stolen from the largest bank in the Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk by men dressed as police.

The robbers pretended to be security personnel hunting for a suicide bomber, before bursting into the bank.

After arriving in SUV vehicles, they told security guards guarding the branch of the Rasheed Bank that they were on the trail of a would-be bomber.

After following the four guards inside, they overpowered and handcuffed them before asking the bank's assistant director to give them the keys to the vault.

They were told the keys were with the director, who had gone home for the day.

The gang then locked the bank employees, guards and clients in a room and only collected money which had been left on the counters.

There was no surveillance camera at the bank and the alarm system linking the bank to a nearby police station was out service.

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