Armed robbers raid Trachoni bank

By Charlie Charalambous

LIMASSOL police yesterday launched a manhunt following an armed robbery at a Popular Bank branch in Trachoni.

Police said two masked men, one of them brandishing a gun, raided the village bank at 9.30am yesterday and escaped with around £17,000 and an unspecified amount of foreign currency.

Three customers and two employees were inside the bank at the time of the attack. All of them escaped unharmed.

“The two men said ‘put your hands up against the wall, this a robbery’, and we stood still while they put the money in a white bag,” one eye-witness said.

Another explained how one of the attackers “held the gun, while the other went into the safe and put money into the bag.”

According to the bank staff, the men gave their orders in Greek.

Police are now searching for a white Citroen van after it was positively identified as the getaway vehicle.

The two men are understood to have acted alone, without the assistance of a getaway driver.

A village resident told police that she had seen the car driving up and down the main street just minutes before the robbery took place.

Police described one of the suspects as being slightly overweight, tanned, with black curly hair and 1.75 metres tall.

Investigators said they were confident of catching the robbers sooner rather than later.

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