The bank robbery took place a stone´s throw from the District Police Office. [break]
Superintendent of Police (SP) Bikram Thapa, chief of Metropolitan Police Range Lalitpur, said the robbers cashed in on ´carelessness´ of bank security guards. Diwakar Paudel, SCB corporate officer, told Republica they were probing how the security arrangements taken over by the Group 4 Company let the looters in.
The looters who seemed to be 22 to 25 walked through the main entrance past guards with standard checking gear, and into the customer service hall. “One of them wore a helmet and the other covered his face with a muffler,” said an official who studied the CCTV footage.
The looters entered the bank around 12:48 p.m.
The looter with the muffler set off an improvised socket bomb and the one in the helmet screamed ´bomb…bomb´. The entrance shutter was pulled down from inside. Police say maybe one of the looters did it or there might be some others still not identified.
Some thought it was a cell phone explosion. A security guard grabbed the mufflered looter by the neck but the latter´s friend showed a pistol and threatened the guard to let go.
The looters approached counters No.2 and 5 and plundered the collected amoun. This took place at 1.08 p.m.
Police said the explosion was only a ploy to create panic and distraction.
The looters fled through another door and took off on a maroon Pulsar motorcycle. A police official said the looters also threatened parking staff with their pistols.
SCB´s Paudel said the bank has revamped security throughout its chain.
SP Thapa said police reached the scene in two minutes but the bank had delayed five minutes in informing them.
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