Bank Officer, 8 Others Held at Gunpoint in Canyon Country Home : Crime: She was forced by suspects to open TransWorld Bank’s vault after she and others, including five youths, were held overnight. All five suspects escaped.

Nine people were held hostage overnight in the Canyon Country home of a bank officer who was forced by gunmen Friday morning to open her bank’s vault under the threat that they would harm her family if she did not comply.

The bank, TransWorld Bank on Soledad Canyon Road, was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money, FBI officials said.

The bank officer and eight other people, including five children ages 12 through 18, were taken hostage by five gunmen and escaped the incident unscathed, FBI spokesman John Hoos said. Two other bank employees held hostage during the robbery also escaped injury.

Hoos would not release any of the victims’ names. But neighbors and other authorities identified the bank employee as Toula Demosthenous, an assistant operations officer at the TransWorld Bank branch.

Three of the five suspects, all described as being in their mid-20s, escaped in Demosthenous’ 1991 red Toyota 4Runner after robbing the bank of an undisclosed amount of money, Hoos said. Police are uncertain how the other two gunmen, left behind at Demosthenous’ home with the hostages, escaped.

Hoos said that it was premature to say whether the robbery was an inside job, but noted that the robbers “knew what they were doing.”

The incident began about 12:30 p.m. Thursday when Demosthenous’ 16-year-old daughter, Nikki, and some of her friends arrived at the family’s Canyon Country home for lunch.

Three men armed with semiautomatic handguns were lying in wait, Hoos said.

“We walked in--six of us at lunchtime--and . . . there they were,” said Chris Bohjalian, 18, who identified himself as Nikki’s boyfriend. “They asked us to get on the floor. They blindfolded us and tied our hands and we stayed like that until this morning.”

“I’m just happy to be alive,” he said.

“I’m feeling kind of shaken up,” said Savvas, Nikki’s younger brother, who was also taken hostage.

The FBI said nine people were subsequently taken and held hostage overnight, including Toula Demosthenous, who arrived home about 5 p.m., authorities said.

Four of the men wore ski masks and a fifth wore a blue baseball cap and a bandanna over his face. The FBI agent said authorities do not know how the gunmen gained entry to the house.

Two years ago in Palmdale, a similar takeover robbery attempt occurred when two gunmen held the assistant manager of Southern California Savings in Newhall and her husband captive for 36 hours. The attempt was foiled when a silent alarm went off in the bank.

After Friday’s robbery, Elizabeth Nielson, vice president of marketing for TransWorld Bank, said the bank spent the day arranging crisis management sessions for bank employees. The bank also changed its locks and closed its automated teller machine.

News of the hostage situation shook residents of this middle-class suburb. Neighbors said they had been unaware of the hostage situation. Some residents said they were alarmed that such a bold crime occurred in their quiet Canyon Country neighborhood.

“This type of thing isn’t suppose to happen here,” said Wendy Beynon, a neighbor.

“I can’t believe it,” said Millie Thomas, who has lived on the two-block street for 27 years.

“We’ve never had trouble like this before. I remember the times when we use to leave our doors open and everybody watched out for each other,” Thomas added. “Now, I don’t even know anybody. It was beautiful, now everything’s horrible.”

Times staff writer Timothy Williams contributed to this story.