KARACHI, March 8: Armed men stormed into a private bank branch in the Defence area on Friday and walked off with Rs3.5 million in this year’s fifth bank heist.

Police said that six robbers came to the Habib Metropolitan Bank’s branch in Khayaban-i-Seher at about 11am. Two robbers overpowered a bank guard outside the branch, snatched his repeater gun, while the remaining four entered the premises and held the staff and customers at gunpoint.

They collected money from cash counters and also went to the strong room to grab more cash. The robbers took nearly 10 minutes to complete their swift operation.

However, they left behind one of the motorcycles they had used to reach the bank and also threw the repeater gun they had snatched from the bank guard, the police said, adding that they snatched a motorcycle from outside the bank for escape.

“We are examining the motorcycle which appears to have been either stolen or snatched,” said a police officer.

The bandits did not take away the digital video recorder and the police got a chance to examine the CCTV footage.

The police said that one of the robbers had been seen in the CCTV footage of some previous bank heists.

A case (FIR 98/2013) was registered at the Gizri police station against unknown persons on a complaint of the bank manager, Mazhar Abbas.

This was the second bank heist in Defence, as on Feb 22 bandits took away Rs2.5 million from a Soneri Bank branch in DHA within the remit of the Darakhshan police station. Both heists took place on a Friday.