CHAKWAL, Jan 18: Talagang witnessed the largest bank heist in its history on Friday when a gang of five robbers stormed United Bank (UBL) branch and took away cash ranging between Rs6 and Rs8 million at gunpoint.

According to staffers and police, the robbers came to the bank at 12:15pm. First two of them tried to enter the bank and three other stayed back. When two of them tried to enter the bank a security guard deputed at the door tried to check them with metal detector.

As he started checking them they overpowered him. In the meantime the other three also entered the bank. They snatched gun from another security guard who was standing inside the bank. Then all the five robbers held the staffers and customers present in the bank hostage.

“The robbers escorted us (staff and customers) to kitchen and held us at gun point”, Salman Ahmad, the operation manager of the branch told Dawn.

He said the bandits took away all the cash present at the cash counter. A customer was injured when a robber hit his pistol butt in his head.

According to security guard, the robbers were Afghans and were in their late twenties.

The police collected all the evidences and launched a hunt for them. “We are raiding the colonies where Afghans are based, and hotels”, SHO Mohammad Asghar of City Police Station Talagang told Dawn.

He claimed that all the members of the gang would be arrested soon. “We are trying our best to trace them and we would be succeeded in our task very soon”, he vowed.—Correspondent