AN ARMED robber held up a Bank of Cyprus branch in the Limassol suburb of Kato Polemidia yesterday morning, escaping with some £26,000 in cash.
At around 3pm, police arrested two men in connection with the raid. One of them, the suspected robber, was in Limassol hospital last night being treated for a gunshot injury to the hand, which police believe was caused when his pistol back-fired.
Police launched a massive manhunt for the pistol-toting, masked raider immediately after the heist.
A car believed to be the robber’s get-away vehicle was found burning at nearby Ypsonas shortly after the bank raid. A fresh trail of blood was found leading from the burning car to a nearby home. The glass back door of the house had been forced and the kitchen trashed. Police immediately alerted all local clinics and hospitals to look out for anyone coming in with injuries.
The first suspect, 28, was picked up after a private clinic notified police that a young man had come in asking for bandages for his injuries. The same man later went to Limassol hospital with a serious palm injury.
Police said the palm injury was caused when the suspect’s pistol backfired and that he had broken into the Ypsonas home desperately searching for a bandage to stem the bleeding.
The second suspect, a cabaret owner, was picked up later on suspicion of working with the alleged bank robber. Both men are expected to appear before Limassol District court today.
The robber – wearing a crash helmet with a visor, gloves and a grey tracksuit – stormed into the Bank of Cyprus branch on Grigoris Afxentiou Avenue at 9.20 am. Speaking Greek with a Cypriot accent, he threatened tellers and the three customers in the branch with a pistol, demanding that his bag be filled with cash. Having stuffed his bag with local and foreign notes worth around £26,000 in total, the man made his get-away in a white car parked outside the branch. The car bore no number plates.
Police were alerted at once and cordoned off the area while launching a hunt for the raider with the help of a helicopter.
Soon after the raid, Limassol police chief Charalambos Koulentis said he was confident it was “only a matter of time” before the culprit was caught. He said police had a lot of information in connection with the case and there were “plenty” of suspects to be called in for questioning.
The Bank of Cyprus District manager, Michalis Christofides, said the branch’s emergency systems had worked “as they should have done”.
Police said the raider was about 25 to 30 years old, 1.80 metres tall and well built.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
