nasza_maggie
23.02.06, 14:19
and where were YOU when it happened?

))))))))
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LONDON (Reuters) - Detectives launched a manhunt on Thursday for an armed
gang who posed as police officers to steal up to 40 million pounds from a
security depot in one of Britain's biggest robberies.
The robbers seized the depot's manager then took his wife and young son
hostage and threatened to harm them unless he helped them get inside the high-
security compound, police said.
The Bank of England confirmed that 25 million pounds of its money had been
stolen.
Unconfirmed news reports said the final haul from Wednesday's raid could be
more than 40 million pounds, making it Britain's biggest cash robbery.
If confirmed, it would eclipse the theft in 2004 of 26.5 million pounds from
a bank in Northern Ireland. That raid was widely blamed on IRA paramilitaries.
"This was a traumatic ordeal for the manager, his family and staff," said
Detective Superintendent Paul Gladstone, of Kent police. "We are determined
to bring the raiders to justice."
Police said no one was injured in the raid on the anonymous-looking depot in
Tonbridge, 40 km southeast of London. No arrests have been made.
The robbery dominated television news bulletins and made the front pages of
most newspapers on Thursday.
The Daily Mail said police were scanning security camera images from the
Channel rail tunnel that links England and France to check if the gang fled
to Europe.
It said the windowless depot, surrounded by a metal fence and covered in
cameras, stored banknotes used in shops in London and southeast England.
The depot is run by Sweden's Securitas, the world's biggest security firm. It
said in a statement: "Members of our staff have had inflicted on them the
most terrible and traumatic experience."
Kent police's Gladstone said raiders in an unmarked car with police-style
blue lights in its grille, stopped the depot manager as he drove home from
work on Tuesday.
One of the gang, wearing a police hat and fluorescent jacket, spoke to the
manager. He got into the gang's car and was handcuffed.
At the same time, his wife and son were abducted from their home by raiders
dressed as police officers. The gang threatened to harm the family and forced
him to let them into the depot.
They spent more than an hour loading a white truck with cash before escaping.
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King ordered an urgent review of banknote
storage.
Other major British robberies include a 26-million-pound gold raid from
Heathrow in 1983 and the theft of cash and valuables worth up to 40 million
pounds from a safe deposit box centre in Knightsbridge in 1987.