Advertisement

Inept crooks blast roof off bank outside Berlin

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Inept crooks blast roof off bank outside Berlin
Photo: DPA

Criminals used so much explosive while trying to rob a bank near Berlin on Wednesday night that they blasted a wall and part of the roof off the building - and may not even have got away with any loot.

Advertisement

Three men were spotted fleeing in a car from the bank in Groß Leuthen, Brandenburg at around 2:20am by a nearby resident.

The entrance to the bank was seriously damaged, with the roof partly blown off and one wall fallen in, but police said the building was not in danger of collapse on Thursday morning.

Police were unable immediately to confirm whether any money had been stolen from the building, but forensic specialists from the state police were on the scene hunting for clues.

Neither could they confirm whether Michael Caine had been on the scene to rebuke the explosives specialist with his famous line from The Italian Job.

No-one was hurt in the explosion.

The raid is the latest in a series of blasts to hit banks across Germany, with several recorded in Brandenburg and in North Rhine-Westphalia.

But the robberies usually take place in banks close to an Autobahn so that the thieves can make a quick getaway.

State police in Düsseldorf said earlier this month that there had been several million euros' worth of damage and thefts in the series of heists.

Federal police said that there had been 63 explosive attacks on banks so far this year, compared with 116 in the whole of 2014.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also