Armed gang hits cash consignment; border surveillance tightened

Robbers tied up armoured truck drivers at Bank of Finland branch office and escaped with "significant" haul

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Border surveillance at ports and airports has been stepped up as a result of the armed robbery that took place in Turku on Monday. All passengers boarding ferries on Monday evening were photographed, and Coast Guard units were called in to back up police in Turku Harbour.
      A trio of armed masked men hit an armoured cash transport truck in the yard of the Bank of Finland premises in the city, tied up the drivers, and escaped with what police described as a "significant" sum of money. The exact details of the haul were not made public.
      On Tuesday morning the three men were still at large.
     
The raid took place at around 5 p.m., and the armed men, their faces masked with commando hats, surprised and overpowered the drivers of the armoured cash transport truck while they were loading sacks of cash in the yard of the Bank of Finland branch office on Turku's Linnankatu.
      Police were notified of the heist almost immediately through the automatic alarm systems on the vehicle, and were on the scene within minutes.
      Despite the speedy response, by the time police units reached the scene, the trio of robbers had escaped by car.
     
In the course of the evening police went through footage of CCTV cameras in the area in the hope that something of the raid would have been captured on film.
      The driver and co-driver of the armoured truck were found tied up at the scene. They were unharmed, although the robbers were armed with at least one handgun. No shots were fired during the robbery.
      Police described the raid as extremely professional. The trio, who according to eye-witness accounts spoke English and Finnish, are thought to have made their escape in a newish blue Toyota Corolla, which was seen driving at speed towards Turku Harbour.
      Further details of the robbery and subsequent investigation have been promised by police in a statement later today. The police have requested anyone who has knowledge of what happened in Linnankatu or the later movements of the suspected getaway car to contact them on 02-281 5100.
     
To some extent, the robbery comes as no surprise. Such heists and attempted robberies have been extremely rare in Finland relative to the situation in Sweden in recent years. However, a daring robbery in the centre of Mariehamn, in the Åland Islands, was carried out in August of last year and remains unsolved.
      Whilst this was believed to have been the first successful cash transport robbery on this scale in Finland, neighbouring Sweden has seen dozens of such heists since the turn of the millennium. Suspicion has fallen particularly on former mercenaries from the Balkans region.
      Events in Sweden have caused Finnish officials to step up training and procedures in the anticipation that similar crimes might make landfall here.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Armed gang hold up money transport vehicle in Mariehamn (11.8.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat