Masked gunmen rob Larnaca bank

By Charlie Charalambous

TWO MASKED men carried out a daring armed robbery in Larnaca yesterday morning, getting away with around £25,000 on a motorbike.

Soon after the 9.10am Bank of Cyprus heist, a huge police manhunt was launched to catch the culprits, who are reported to have used a gun to threaten the cashiers.

“Two assailants aged between 20 and 25 went into the branch wearing balaclavas; one of them pulled out a pistol and they took £25,000 from the bank by force,” a police statement said yesterday.

According to one bank employee, Maria Touloumbis, one of the robbers spoke Cypriot dialect while the other spoke in broken Greek.

There were six people inside the branch at the time of the robbery. Three of them were customers, and although suffering shock, none were seriously injured.

One eye-witness, Maria Nicolaou, was able to give police a description of the robbers, but the cashiers were still too shocked from the experience to give a full account.

However, one employee did manage to sound the alarm, which is linked to Larnaca’s central police station.

Several police cars were at the scene within minutes, and a helicopter was also despatched to track down the robbers.

Police chief Andreas Angelides arrived at the scene to co-ordinate operations at first-hand.

The attackers were last seen leaving the bank on a Yamaha motorbike, having pulled crash helmets over their balaclavas.

This latest incident has raised concerns about the lack of security at banks and the need to ensure that employees are better protected.

Etyk bank union representative Panayiotis Koumbaris called for extra security to be introduced, saying there was no safety barrier between the clerk and the customer.

He said security measures at most banks was “sketchy” and little had been done to protect staff, considering this was the third heist in Larnaca in as many years.