Gunmen abduct six guards after failed bank heist

By CYRUS OMBATI

Nairobi, Kenya: Six security guards were Wednesday abducted by armed gangsters after a botched robbery attempt at a bank in Nairobi.

The six are said to have been abducted by gunmen who broke into Co-operative Bank, Haile Selassie Avenue, at KPCU Building and tried to access the vaults.

A manager at the Wells Fargo security company, however, said two of their guards were later abandoned in Eastlands area unhurt while four others who work with a different institution are yet to be located.

Central CID boss Richard Bitok said they are interrogating the two guards as part of their investigations into the incident.

“They look traumatised but we will talk to them for more information on this attempted robbery. The other four who are said to belong to G4S are yet to located for now,” said Bitok.

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Police and the bank said the gang did not steal money in the Wednesday 2am incident.

The robbers are reported to have  first tried to access the bank’s  strong room in vain. They then attempted to steal from the bank’s ATM without success.

This prompted them to escape but after abducting the six guards on duty. Police said one of the guards has been calling them saying he is locked in a boot of the car that was used to take them away.

Another officer said they suspect it was an inside job.

Nairobi head of police operations Wilfred Mbithi said a team of detectives is pursuing the gang.

He added he had visited the bank and confirmed no money was stolen. He said the gang was targeting some unknown but colossal amount of cash that was in the bank.

Police and guards at the bank blocked journalists who arrived at the scene, saying they did not want the event covered.

The Standard photographer Moses Omusula was slapped by one of the officers  and was forced to delete some photos he had taken at the scene.

“I do not know why they did not want us to cover the event because we had been inside the bank. One of the officers confronted and slapped me before forcing me to delete the photos I had taken,” said Omusula.

Police said they are investigating the incident.