Alert staff in Mumbai foil bank burglary bid in city

CHENNAI: A burglary bid at a private bank in Ramapuram was foiled when the security team from Mumbai, monitoring the bank and its ATM though CCTV cameras, alerted the local police.
A senior police officer said that around 3 am on Monday, two masked men entered the ATM attached to the Axis Bank situated on Mount-Poonamallee High Road in Ramapuram opposite DLF on the pretext of withdrawing money.

“A few minutes later, the men returned with gas cutters and managed to enter the bank through one of the windows. The bank was fully under the CCTV surveillance and an alarm system and hence did not have any security guard on duty. As they broke the window, the alarm went off and the security team from Mumbai, which was monitoring the bank and the ATM through the CCTV installed through the IPTV (Internet protocol television network), found the men breaking into the bank,” said a police officer.
The men failed to notice the CCTV, but they managed to break the alarm. “The men were searching for valuables when the security team informed the police control room,” said the officer.

A patrol team from the Rayala Nagar police rushed to the spot, but by then the miscreants had fled, leaving behind the gas cylinder and cutters. Police have taken CCTV footage to trace the suspects.The footage showed two men running and trying to break the alarm at the bank. Police are scanning the groups that have similar modus operandi, where they use gas cylinders and cutters to break into banks and houses. Sniffer dogs were pressed into service and fingerprint experts have taken imprints from the spot.
On March 24, miscreants used gas cylinder and hydrogen cylinder and stole cash and jewels worth `1 crore from an IOB branch in Virugambakkam.