Thieves steal millions from bank after guards drugged

ROBBERS stole more than six billion Iraqi dinars – the equivalent of £3.5 million – from a bank near the Iraqi city of Najaf after a police officer drugged fellow bank guards.

The robbery took place yesterday at the state-run al-Rafidain bank in the town of al-Mishkhab, about 20 miles south of Najaf, said Loay al-Yasiri, a provincial official in charge of security for Najaf.

A policeman who was guarding the bank offered cups of tea laced with sleeping medication to four guards on duty there, knocking them out for the night, according to a local police and a bank official.

The robbers then took off with more than six billion Iraqi dinars in cash while the guards slept. The policeman who had offered the other guards the drugged tea escaped along with the thieves.

The bank official said that not a single shot was fired and no-one was hurt. The bank was just yards away from a local police station.