Throwing a challenge to the Angul district police, a group of armed dacoits robbed cash of about Rs 20 lakh and gold jewellery worth lakhs on Friday morning from a branch of the Andhra Bank situated at Angul Bazaar.
At about 10.30 am, six persons wearing masks entered the bank, threatened the staffs along with the customers at gunpoint and locked them in a room in the bank premises and took away cash and jewellery kept in the strong room.
After getting information, a police team led by SP Mitrabhanu Mohapatra reached the spot, broke the lock and rescued the bank staffs and customers.
Police and bank officials were ascertaining the exact amount of the looted property. local people have become panicky after this broad daylight robbery from a bank in a busy area.
In another such incident on the day, armed miscreants in afternoon barged into a bank in Ranpur of Nayagarh district and decamped with gold jewellery and cash after terrorising the staffs at gunpoint.
Sources said five motorbike-borne dacoits barged into the Odisha Gramya Bank at Sarangdharpur under the Ranpur police station bank in the afternoon when there were no customers and terrorised the staffs by brandishing guns.
They broke the bank’s locker and took 200 grams of gold ornaments. They also looted some cash and fled from the spot.
Getting information, the Ranpur police station IIC and other police personnel rushed to spot and began investigations.
Police were scrutinising the CCTV footages to identify the culprits.