Daring Robbers Dig Hole Into Paris Bank

PARIS, March 30, 2010— -- Police are investigating an old-style robbery in the heart of Paris worthy of a Hollywood movie, and the latest in a series of flamboyant European heists.

A team of robbers, possibly three or four, dug a hole in the wall of an office building to reach the basement of the Credit Lyonnais bank located on the prestigious Avenue de l'Opéra over the weekend and broke open almost 200 safety deposit boxes.

Details of the preliminary investigation reported in the French media suggest that the robbers spent several hours digging the hole from the cellars of the building next to the bank to reach the bank's basement. A security guard inside the bank found himself face to face with the robbers.

"They (the robbers) pinned him to the wall and told him 'don't move if you care for your life'," Sery Koré, a colleague of the security guard, told 24-hour news channel LCI.

Then, the robbers made a hole in the wall next to the door of the bank vault and cracked open close to 200 safes. The value of the stolen goods is still being estimated.

After nine hours of hard labor, the robbers quietly left the bank after having set its basement on fire, destroying evidence and thus considerably complicating the work of the investigators. The security guard escaped unhurt from the basement and alerted French police at 7 a.m. Sunday.

"It was the work of a team of professionals using specific equipment to achieve their ends," Francis Nebot of the Synergie police union told ABC News. "They used hydraulic jacks and above all a thermal lance which can make a hole in just anything."

The robbers did not choose this particular bank by accident. The bank was under renovation and had been closed for several weeks. It was empty, except for the vault.

According to French police, this latest robbery bears similarities with a series of other heists in banks near Paris. In January, burglars robbed a bank in Montreuil, outside Paris. They too took advantage of the closing of the bank for construction work and of a long holiday weekend to break open about 100 safes.