Paris Gangsters Attack Armored Vans

P A R I S , Dec. 26, 2000 -- Gangsters launched an attack in broaddaylight today on two armored vans traveling together just100 yards from the Paris beltway, a spokesman for the vans’owners said.

Police sources initially spoke of a single van attackedwith a portable rocket launcher. But Rene Suillaud, spokesmanfor owners Brinks said two vans, one of them a decoy withoutcash, were involved and that no anti-tank weapons were used.

He said one van escaped the ambush but the other was forcedto halt and its side was blasted open by a powerful explosivedevice slapped onto it from the outside.

The three guards aboard, separated from the cargo hold byheavy armor plate were slightly hurt, ambulance services said.

Suillaud would not say which of the two vans contained thefunds just picked up from a major bank’s regional headquartersnearby.

Eyewitnesses had said bank notes were sucked out of thedamaged vehicle by the blast and strewn across the road.

Police however said the raiders probably made off with onlya tiny part of the cash they sought.

Not a Spur-of-the-Moment Crime

The attack, in the southeastern suburb of Gentilly justbeneath the capital’s “boulevard peripherique” beltway, wasmeticulously planned.

Suillaud said the gangsters drove a large van across theroad as the armored vans approached, forcing one to stop, whileanother vehicle drove up behind.

But one van evaded the improvised roadblock and drove offwith gangsters in pursuit firing weapons as they drove, both atthe van and at police, Suillaud said.

Other robbers meanwhile set fire to the two vehiclesblocking the trapped armored van while blasting its side withan explosive charge.

Gentilly resident Nardjef Bouchahdane, 24, told Reuters shewas in her apartment near the scene when she heard largeexplosions followed by machine-gun fire.

“It lasted five minutes during which I hid in my kitchen.Afterward I went out and saw there was a big hole in the sideof the armored van,” she said.

Van guards went on strike throughout France last May,causing ATMs to run out of money, until they were promised morepay and better protection.