Bank vault drilled open in Germany
Robbers stole around €30 million in cash and valuables from a savings bank branch in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany, in what police describe as one of the largest bank heists in the country’s criminal history, a Qazinform News Agency correspondent reports.
According to a Facebook post by Gelsenkirchen police, the break-in was discovered late on Monday after a fire alarm went off at about 4 a.m., prompting police and firefighters to search the building on Nienhofstraße in the Buer district. Inside the basement, officers found a hole drilled into a vault room and evidence that thousands of safe deposit boxes had been forced open.
Police say about 3,200 boxes were broken into, affecting more than 2,500 customers. Initial estimates put the damage in the tens of millions of euros, though the exact amount remains under investigation.
According to investigators, the perpetrators gained access through a nearby parking garage, passed through several doors, and used a large specialized drill to break through a wall into the vault. Evidence was secured at the scene on Monday as an extensive investigation began.
Witnesses have provided what police call a concrete lead. Several people reported seeing multiple men carrying large bags in the stairwell of an adjacent parking garage on the night from Saturday to Sunday. Video footage from the garage shows a high-powered black Audi RS 6 leaving early Monday morning. Masked individuals were inside the vehicle, one of whom was seen operating the exit barrier. The license plate on the car had previously been stolen in the northern city of Hanover.
An unnamed police spokesperson described the operation as highly professional, saying it required significant prior knowledge and criminal effort to plan and carry out.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that a Napoleon ring had been stolen in Belgium.