Ghanaian Times

Armed robbers storm Ashanti bank

The Ghanaian Times reports that for two hours a gang of eight armed robbers placed the Kofiase township, near Asante Mampong, under siege with sporadic firing of warning shots in the early hours of yesterday.

The robbers, the paper says, raided the Otuasekan Rural Bank in the town and bolted with a metal safe containing about 25 million cedis and some vital documents, a ?Yamaha? electric generator, a radio set and a quantity of cheque books.

The Times quotes police sources as saying that the robbers attacked the watchman of the bank, Robert Mensah and after gagging and tying him up, four of the robbers broke into the bank while the other four took positions at some strategic areas of the town.

It says in an apparent bid to scare off the residents and keep them indoors, the robbers resorted to the sporadic firing of warning shots. They were said to have broken into the strong room of the bank and attempted to open the metal safe containing the money and documents, but they could not.

They therefore carried the safe into a waiting ?Nissan? pick-up and bolted. The Times says no arrests have been made, but meanwhile, the Kumasi police have rounded up about 25 suspected criminals in a dawn swoop. The paper says the operation is part of the efforts to combat the spate of armed robbery in the metropolis and Ashanti in general.