Police drilled in fighting bank robbery
The Hanoi police force launched a large-scale drill involving nearly 600 police officers on May 20 to improve its ability to deal with robbers at banks or gold shops.
The rehearsal was carried out at the head office of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.
More than 50 police cars and a lot of weapons and special devices were used in the drill.
According to the exercise’s scenario, a group of five robbers arrived in the bank in a car at 12 pm (noon). They were armed with K54 handguns, AK submachine guns and poniards.
They then shot and injured a bank security guard who attempted to stop them for examination.
One of the robbers took shelter at the front door of the bank while the remaining four rushed into the bank to threaten 10 bank staff and ask the cashier to give them all of the money and gold in the cash boxes.
Earlier, on hearing the sound of the shooting, the cashier had pressed a special alarm button that was directly connected to the capital’s anti-robber police force.
After seizing some money and gold from the cashier, the robbers held some bank staff as hostages.
Receiving the alarm, the capital’s police immediately deployed its force to the scene, surrounding the bank and using loudspeakers to persuade the attackers to free the hostages and surrender.
The robbers rejected the police’s call, demanding that they be given a taxi so that they could escape from the scene, claiming that otherwise they would kill the hostages.
The police continued persuading the robbers to surrender but failed. They then sent a taxicab to the scene which was driven by a police officer who had disguised himself as the cab’s driver.
When one of the robbers brought hostage along with him out of the bank and was walking over to the taxicab for examination, the police team decided to launch simultaneous attacks on the robbers.
While a sniper was assigned to shoot the robber outside the bank, the remaining police officers broke into the bank from the floor above the ground floor and down to where the other robbers were holding the rest of the hostages.
During the exchange of shots, the police killed two robbers and then seized the two others.
They later rescued the hostages safely.
Below are the photos of the drill taken by VnExpress newswire:
| One of the robbers threatens the bank's staff with a gun |
| Hanoi police deploy its force to the scene after receiving the alarm from the bank's cashier |
| A task force surround the bank building |
| A taxi sent to the scene at the robbers' request |
| Two task force members use ropes to break into the bank from above |
| After shooting dead two robbers, the police seize two others |