LONDON, Feb 25: British police recovered part of the money stolen in what may be Britain’s biggest bank robbery, the officer in charge of the investigation said on Friday, but released three suspects arrested in connection with the theft.

Investigators found ‘a quantity of cash’ in a van, Commissioner Adrian Leppard said, but the amount found has not yet been determined.

Television pictures showed police officers removing several apparently heavy black plastic sacks.

Police are keeping the three released suspects under observation. They earlier issued an identikit portrait of one of the robbers, a man with a ginger beard which Leppard said may have been fake.

The theft on Thursday from a cash depot in Tonbridge, southeast of London, is believed to have netted up to 50 million pounds. A 41-year-old woman was questioned on suspicion of handling stolen goods after she was detained Thursday trying to bank a wad of banknotes at a building society (credit union) in south London.

“This woman went into the Portman Building Society in Bromley and had cash with her which she was banking and it had Tonbridge markings on it,” Kent Police assistant chief constable Adrian Leppard said.—AFP