Security man held up at Birkirkara bank

The police have mounted a hunt for three men involved in a daring hold-up in front of the HSBC branch in Birkirkara yesterday.

Sources said around Lm20,000 in cash and Lm65,000 in cheques were stolen when a van of the firm Security Services stopped to service the branch located in Naxxar Road, one of the busiest roads in Malta, at 1 p.m.

The police said one of the security officials had just walked out of the bank with a bag when two armed and hooded men appeared out of nowhere and pounced on him demanding the money, before fleeing from the scene with the help of an accomplice.

Nobody was injured during the robbery.

Within minutes the place was swarming with police. The getaway vehicle, a van, was later found parked close to St Aloysius College.

The police questioned eyewitnesses and inspected footage taken from the bank's ATM. HSBC branches are equipped with state-of-the-art security technology including CCTV cameras and are monitored centrally.

Duty magistrate Antonio Mizzi ordered an inquiry and appointed several experts to help him with the inquiry. The Criminal Investigations Department and the district police are investigating.

The hold-up was a close replica of another armed hold-up that took place near the same Birkirkara branch last October.

In that case, a man wearing a hard hat and making believe he was selling flowers from a blue bucket had held up personnel in the bank's security van that had stopped near the building. He had rushed off with a case with the help of an accomplice.

In a similar incident in Mellieha last June 14, two armed and hooded men escaped with about Lm9,000 in cash and cheques after they held up a man who was on his way to deposit the money in a bank. The two robbers jumped out of a car that stopped right in front of him.

And last January, robbers raided the HSBC branch in St Andrew's and made off with about Lm12,000 after neutralising the policeman on duty.

Sources said that cash vans normally carry controlled consignments just in case such attacks take place. They service banks at irregular intervals to deter would-be robbers.