Five Gunmen Rob French Bank, Take $11.4 Million

Five masked gunmen took a bank director and a cashier hostage on the Brittany coast today and robbed a branch of the Bank of France, escaping with $11.4 million before police arrived, authorities said.

A gunman shot one of the hostages before fleeing the Bank of France in Saint-Nazaire, on the Atlantic coast 280 miles southwest of Paris, police said. The other hostage was left unharmed.

The take nearly equaled the $11.5 million stolen from the Caisse d’Epargne in Paris in 1980--France’s largest bank robbery. It was slightly larger than the record U.S. cash robbery, of $11 million, from Sentry Armored Car-Courier in New York in 1982.

Police said the masked men began the robbery by breaking into the bank cashier’s apartment, above the bank offices, at 4:30 a.m.

They said the cashier was shot while trying to grab the gun pointed at him. The bullet went through his body.

The gunmen then awoke the bank director, in a neighboring apartment, and took him hostage. They went to the bank and waited for arriving employees, getting the keys to the safe from one of them and holding guns on all 10.

The robbers opened the safe and escaped with the equivalent of $11.4 million as the sound of police sirens drew closer.

Hours later, police found a car, a van and a truck used in the getaway and were examining them for clues.

The cashier was in satisfactory condition at a hospital and there were no other injuries.

The robbery was the second major heist at a Bank of France office in four months and prompted Security Minister Robert Pandraud to order increased security at Bank of France branches throughout the country.

The Bank of France branch at Niort, about 150 miles from Saint-Nazaire, was robbed March 4 by six gunmen who escaped with $4.1 million.