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| Police were not told about the heist at the
Northern Bank in Belfast until six hours after the robbery began.
(AP) |
Thieves stole more than $39 million from a Belfast bank in the biggest
robbery in Northern Ireland history after holding family members of two
bank officials hostage for a day in their homes, authorities said Tuesday.
Police said the thieves took over the houses of
two senior Northern Bank executives on Sunday, then forced the employees
to help the gang gain access to the vault
after the bank closed for business on Monday evening.
Assistant Chief Constable Sam Kinkaid said members
of the bank employees' families had been held hostage for at least a day
and were left traumatized
by the ordeal.
The sum stolen "is quite considerable and may be in excess of 20
million pounds," or $39 million, Kinkaid said.
Police say more than 80 major crime gangs operate
in Northern Ireland, and many gang members belong to illegal paramilitary groups
. Kinkaid said
Tuesday that it was "far too early to say" whether the gang behind
Monday's raid had links to paramilitary groups.
Police weren't informed about the robbery until nearly midnight, six
hours after the gang began clearing the safe. They said the Northern Bank
employees' families suffered no wounds, but a member of one of the
families was hospitalized suffering from hypothermia in circumstances that
weren't explained.
The targeted safe stored money being distributed to all 95 branches of
Northern Bank in Northern Ireland in the run-up to Christmas, when banks
typically handle their greatest volumes of cash. Police suspect that the
gang used a large truck to carry away the cash.
Northern Bank said it could not comment on any details of the raid.
"However, initial indications are that affected staff are safe. This is
our No. 1 priority," it said in a statement.
The group with the biggest reputation for mounting bank robberies is
the Irish Republican Army, which is observing a 1997 cease-fire but
continues to run a range of criminal enterprises, including cigarette and
fuel smuggling. The group in the past has gained access to high-security
targets by taking the families of employees hostage.
Police in May accused the IRA of taking staff hostage at Northern
Ireland's biggest retail superstore, then stealing more than $7.75 million
in goods loaded onto a truck.
The raid came a week after Northern Bank's owner, National Australia
Bank, announced it was selling the bank to Danske Bank of Denmark in a
deal expected to conclude in spring 2005.
The Guinness Book of Records said the biggest known bank robbery was
that of the German central bank, the Reichsbank, in 1945, following the
Nazis' defeat, in which an estimated 2.5 billion pounds at 1984 values was
stolen.
Police estimated that about $65 million was stolen in 1987 from the
Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Center in west London in Britain's biggest
robbery.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2004-12-22 09:24