Rs 1 crore robbed from Axis bank in Bihar at gunpoint

Patna, Aug 1 (IANS) Four masked, armed men looted Rs 1 crore from an Axis Bank branch in Bihar’s Vaishali district on Tuesday, police said.

Vaishali police issued CCTV footage where the accused were wearing face masks and helmets and pistols in the hand and bags.

The bank heist took place at Teenpulwa Chowk in Lalganj block of the district.

The accused, after committing the crime, also took away the hard disk of the CCTV cameras as well.

The police said that as a back-up was also already recorded somewhere else, the footage was found by police and its analysis is underway.

The robbers struck the bank as soon as it opened on Tuesday morning, barging in holding up all the employees and customers at gunpoint. They forced the employees to hand over all the money kept in the bank branch. The exact sum of money taken away by robbers is not ascertained yet but the bank employees are assuming more than Rs 1 crore taken away by them.

"The Axis bank management has claimed Rs 1 crore heist by four robbers. Three of them entered inside and the fourth stayed outside. The bank had security guards but they did not have weapons. We are making efforts to identify the accused and crack this case," IGP, Vaishali range, Pankaj Kumar said.