Sharjah: Sharjah Police have launched a hunt for three armed and masked robbers who raided a bank in Sharjah on Tuesday morning and made off with an unspecified amount of cash.
The incident occurred at the Habib Bank branch located in Al Buhairah near the corniche.
The men carrying guns raided the bank, took cash from tellers and quickly fled the scene.
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The police operations room received a call around 11am reporting the incident.
Police have not disclosed how much money was stolen by the suspects.
Police sources said investigators were looking at the CCTV footage and speaking to eyewitnesses.
Gulf News visited the bank and found that all staff members had been taken to Al Buhairah police station for questioning.
One of the staff members who witnessed the incident told Gulf News that she was in the washroom when the incident happened and her colleague said the three men raided the premises and ran away with an unspecified amount of money.
The bank branch was closed for the rest of the day.
Camera footage showed a vehicle waiting outside the bank and when the robbers finished their mission, they sped away in the vehicle.
Bid at money exchange
In July, Sharjah Police arrested five Nigerian men involved in attempting to rob a money exchange centre in Al Nahda area.
The gang members tried to rob the UAE Exchange branch in Al Nahda area on July 13, a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) official said.
Two security guards in the exchange prevented the robbery after the gang members started attacking employees of the money exchange who were transferring boxes of money containing Dh1 million to a vehicle parked in front of the branch.
The suspects ran away before the matter was reported to the police, but through surveillance camera footage, police were able to identify and arrest five suspects.
The police said the evidence gathered from the investigation indicated that the suspects were trying to steal the money boxes while they were being transported from the money exchange to the vehicle. The police also added that the suspects had monitored the vehicle for a period of time before launching the attack. Two of the suspects were arrested in cooperation with Dubai Police.
Following the money exchange incident, the police had warned banks and exchanges to be alert while transporting cash from vehicles to the premises and vice versa and report any suspicious people around banks or money exchanges.
