CRIME
Suthiwit Chayutworakan
SAMUT PRAKAN : Two armed robbers held up a bank in Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday, making off with 3.3 million baht in cash following a 40-minute heist.
Saichon Pawangkanan, a 28-year-old teller, was the first staff member to arrive at work yesterday, at about 7.30am.
She said two men in black jackets bearing the word "Police" on the back suddenly appeared as she was unlocking the bank's doors and forced her inside.
According to Miss Saichon, one of the robbers was brandishing a handgun, while the other held a knife.
She said they forced her to open the vault.
She resisted, but one of the robbers struck her across the face with his gun and slammed her head on a table.
She then opened the vault, but the robbers could not access the cash as it was stored in a safe inside the vault and another worker held the key. The robbers decided to wait.
When the worker, 40-year-old Pimwaree Tansriwong, arrived, the robbers bound her mouth with masking tape, handcuffed her and forced her to open the safe.
They also handcuffed six other workers who arrived later.
The robbers covered their fingertips with tape so as not to leave prints, stuffed the cash in their bag and also stole a gun and a surveillance videotape from the bank. Before departing, the robbers told the eight employees not to cooperate with the law, or their family members would be killed, police said.
The robbers fled the scene on a Honda motorcycle with the licence plate number Lor Sor Thor 990.
Police at Ratcha Thewa station in Bang Phli district, which is responsible for the airport, set up roadblocks, but did not catch the robbers.
Pol Maj-Gen Withaya Prayongpan, chief of Samut Prakan police, suspected the robbers were workers at the airport, because they knew the schedules of the bank's workers and the location of the cash safe.
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