Muscat: The staff of the Bank Muscat branch in Fanja had a providential escape when a gun-toting robber panicked and fled on Wednesday.
“I was holding a meeting at 7.40am when the suspect entered from the back door of the branch with a revolver in his hand,” Amr Bin Saeed Bin Salem Al Sawai, the branch manager, told Gulf News over the phone.
He said that the staff normally come in at 7am and the bank opens for business at 8am.
“The front door was locked, but gained entry from the back door,” Al Sawai said, adding that the suspect threatened the staff and demanded the keys to the vault.
“We did not panic and began talking to him, all the time promising to give him the keys,” he said.
The suspect got restless as time passed. “All of a sudden, he ran out and disappeared,” Al Sawai added. “He did not take anything.”
Al Sawai said the suspect was in his early 20s. “He was wearing a Omani dishdasha and mussar like Saudi nationals.”
The Royal Oman Police (ROP) confirmed that a robbery attempt was made by an Arab national on Wednesday morning and investigations are on.
“I spent most of the afternoon helping the police in their investigation,” Al Sawai said.
