Australian hole-in-the-wall robbers escape

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Two Australian bank robbers trapped inside a Sydney bank by heavily-armed police, escaped through a hole in the bank's wall and melted into a large crowd of spectators.


While police trained their weapons on the bank from behind an armoured van they were unaware the bank robbers had left empty-handed. Police stormed the bank to find it empty.


The drama began when a female bank worker opened the St George bank in Neutral Bay, an affluent northern Sydney suburb, police superintendent John Sweeney told reporters.


Suddenly an armed man tried to seize the woman, who fled and raised the alarm. The two bank robbers then locked themselves in the back of the bank, holding two female bank staff hostage.


A few hours later the two women were allowed to leave the bank, while armed police remained at the front door, snipers crouched behind cars and a police helicopter hovered above.


Eventually police stormed the bank but the robbers had left, perhaps hours earlier, Sweeney said.


"Access to the premises is from a vacant building next door and it is a bit of a rabbit warren around the rear," he said.


"They have actually crashed through a double brick wall, they have drilled a hole through it, so it's a reasonable assumption (they escaped through the hole)."


The robbers had not tampered with the bank safe, Sweeney added