Street robbers steal $2.7 million in cash in rare Tokyo heist

A team of three robbers stole suitcases holding $2.7 million in cash on a busy street in central Tokyo, police and media said Friday, a rare crime in the Japanese metropolis that prides itself on safety.

The heist saw the thieves deploy pepper spray to grab luggage containing the money at around 9:30 pm (1230 GMT) Thursday near Ueno station, an area popular with tourists, a spokeswoman at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police told AFP on condition of anonymity.

She declined to give further details of the case, but local media said the victims were a group of five Chinese and Japanese nationals who were trying to place suitcases containing some 420 million yen ($2.7 million) in a vehicle.

It was not immediately clear why the group was carrying the money.

Fuji Television said the victims told investigators that the cash was being delivered to currency exchange stations.

Separately, a man with 190 million yen in cash was also attacked with pepper spray by a group of three men in the early hours of Friday morning at a parking garage at Tokyo's Haneda airport, local media said.

Police were investigating the link between the two attacks, broadcaster TBS said.