Thieves used heavy drilling equipment to break into a vault at a high-street bank in western Germany and stole an estimated €30 million ($35 million) in cash, gold and jewellery, police said Tuesday.
The overnight heist targeted a branch of Sparkasse in the city of Gelsenkirchen, where burglars drilled through the vault wall and forced open more than 3,000 safe deposit boxes.
A police spokesman described the break-in as “very professionally executed,” likening it to the Hollywood film Ocean’s Eleven, German and international media reported.
Authorities said the crime was discovered in the early hours of Monday after a fire alarm was triggered at the bank. Emergency responders later found extensive damage to the vault and numerous deposit boxes emptied of their contents.
Police estimate that several thousand customers were affected, though the exact value of the stolen items is still being assessed. Initial estimates of losses range from tens of millions of euros.
Investigators said no arrests have been made and the perpetrators remain at large. Security camera footage and forensic evidence from the scene are being analysed as part of the ongoing investigation.
The bank said it is cooperating fully with authorities and has begun contacting customers whose safe deposit boxes were affected. (Newswire)