Unidentified armed miscreants looted over Rs 16 lakh from a rural bank in Odisha's Sambalpur district today, police said.
Five miscreants, covering their faces on the pretence of extreme heat, entered the Utkal Gramya Bank branch at Gadamunda along National Highway 6 under Burla police station and decamped with the booty, sub-divisional police officer, Burla-Hirakud, Thakur Prasad Patra said.
They met the manager and two staff of the rural branch located in a government building offering to open account in the branch before overpowering them at gun point.
The manager and a staff were locked inside a room with their hands tied and the miscreants took the cashier into the strong room.
The miscreants took over Rs 24 lakh in three separate bags and fled shutting the bank from outside, Patra said.
After over an hour, the cashier managed to come out of the strong room and informed the police who swung into action and found a bag containing Rs 8 lakh cash at a distance from the bank.
Alert had been sounded in the area and police intensified checking of vehicles to nab the miscreants, the SDPO said.
In another incident, Rs 1.48 lakh was looted by unidentified miscreants who broke dickey of a motorcycle of a farmer and took away the cash from it near a shop in Dhuthurapara area here today, police said.
