2 Armed Bandits Rob Bank of America in Santa Ana

Two armed men robbed a Bank of America branch in Santa Ana on Friday and fled in a stolen car with an undisclosed amount of money, police said.

The men entered the Bank of America branch at 3730 S. Bristol St. shortly after 2 p.m., said Lt. Jose Garcia of the Santa Ana Police Department.

The FBI, which routinely investigates bank robberies, also was looking into the incident late Friday, and the two robbers were still at large.

“The two males took over the bank, told everyone to hit the ground and made some demands for money,” said Special Agent Ramiro Escudero, a spokesman for the FBI field division in Los Angeles.

There were about 20 people in the bank. No one was injured.

Chuck Munoz was waiting in a teller line when the bandits entered.

“They just rushed in through the door and ordered us all to get down on the floor,” he said. “Most of us had already dropped.”

Munoz said one of the men appeared agitated.

“They kept saying, ‘Fill up the money. Don’t look at us, we’ll shoot you!’ ” he said.

The men fled in a light blue stolen Honda, which was abandoned with its engine running at South Coast Plaza Village. Some of the money, colored by a red dye pack that bank employees included with it, was found in the car.

Escudero said such takeover robberies, which are more aggressive than incidents where robbers subtly approach tellers, can be especially dangerous.

“Any time you have someone in a bank demanding money, there’s the potential for someone to get hurt,” he said. In a takeover situation, he said, “they’re very brazen, brandishing a weapon. It becomes more dangerous.”

But he added that the number of bank robberies in Southern California has been decreasing for about five years as banks have increased security.