KARACHI, March 5: A gang of 10 robbers stormed into a bank on Wednesday in Defence Housing Authority and walked off with Rs4.58 million, police and witnesses said.

The police said the bandits also took away the rifles of the two private security guards and the tapes of security cameras.

A bank official told Dawn that two robbers first entered the bank at around 9.15am and swiftly overpowered as many guards.

“As they snatched rifles from the guards, their accomplices stormed into the bank and held the staff hostage at gunpoint,” he added.

A bank official said the robbers ordered the staff to keep their heads down and quickly scooped the money up from the cash counter. “Later, they made the bank manager open the vault at gunpoint and took out the cash from there,” he added.

The Defence police registered a case against unknown bandits on the complaint of the bank manager, Rashid Ali Farooqi.

The bank staff told the police that the robbers, some of them clad in trousers and shirts and the others in shalwar-qameez, were in their early and late 20s.

SP Asif Ijaz Shaikh told Dawn that the bandits were armed with TT pistols and assault rifles. “They completed their swift operation in 10 to 15 minutes and fled the scene immediately,” he added.

The SP said that some of the robbers fled the scene in a golden Suzuki Cultus.

Meanwhile, police sources said one of the bank staffers twice rang the bank’s security alarm, but the security company failed to respond to their calls.

The incidence of bank robberies has registered an upward trend in the recent past. According to reports in the press, 42 bank robberies took place in the country from March 2004 to August 20, 2007 in which a total of Rs296.1 million was looted. Out of these, 32 bank robberies took place in Karachi alone. Sources said the guards of private security companies deployed at banks were involved in at least 20 of all the robberies committed across the country, lending credence to the fact that either the management of the security companies did not bother to verify the character and antecedents of their guards or they were careless about selecting the right type of guards, especially for duties at banks.

Facts and figures obtained by Dawn from police showed that at least 21 robberies took place in parts of Karachi during the year 2007.

Three bank robberies each were committed in Ferozabad and North Nazimabad police areas, two each in Azizabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, and one each in the police precincts of Gulberg, Gulbahar, Sharifabad, Taimuriya, Gulishtan-Jauhar, Soldier Bazar, Shah Faisal Colony, Sharea Faisal, Pirabad and Site.