In a daring incident, six youths have looted gold and cash worth about Rs 2.6 crore from Thoubal HDFC Bank branch. According to a source, six unknown persons armed with knives entered the bank branch office which is located just about half a kilometre away from Thoubal PS at around 5.30 pm today after overpowering a security personnel and staff of the bank.
The source said that the six youths overpowered the security personnel, armed with 12 bore gun, at knife point and moved on to the first floor of the building. The youth then herded six staff, a security person and the housekeeper in one room before snatching the key of the hard room from the manager. They put the cash and the gold inside four air bags. They also snatched the mobile phones of the bank staff. However, the looters did not take away the hard drive of the CCTV camera.
One of the four air bags, the gun of the security person and a knife were later recovered from the spot. The unidentified youth are said to be in the age group of 20-25 years. Thoubal district police swung into action to trace the looters. Experts from the Manipur Police Forensic Science Laboratory will start probing the matter tomorrow, the source added.