French police hunt robbers

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33944, 10 September 1975, Page 17

French police hunt robbers

(X.Z.P.A -Reuter —Cop?/riphr PARIS, September 9. French police today hunted two armed robbers who escaped with a 4.6 million franc ransom in a (Jovernmentprovided car. after holding seven people hostage for more than 10 hours in a bank in Paris.

The robbers’ bid to raid the bank, a branch of the Credit Industriel et Commerciel in central Paris, was foiled when an alarm bell alerted nearby police, there in strength for a visit by the Iraqi Vice-President, Mr Saddam Hussein.

Finding the bank surrounded, the robbers grabbed seven hostages — five bank employees and two customers — and demanded the ransom and car.

They made their getaway i under the sights of police] marksmen posted on roof- & During a high-speed through Paris, the robbers abandoned the provided icar and stole first one and -then another. ] They left four of the hostlages behind at the bank. The fifth — a woman — was found in the first abandoned car and the remaining two were released shortly afterwards.

Police said later that they believed both men were still in the Paris area. The robbers had burst into the bank near thq Invalides military museum shortly before midday.

Police and members of the elite anti-terrorists brigade, nearby to watch over the Vice-President, rushed to the scene.

After the two men promised to leave four of the hostages behind and release the others later, authorities agreed to provide them with a white Peugeot car and the money, more than a third of which was in foreign currencies.

As the robbers made their getaway two hooded gunmen in Milan, Italy, who had kept 11 people hostage in a bank for most of the dav finally gave un after police promised them light sentences. Last week, in Nice, southern France, a would-be bank robber took two bank officials hostage and threatened to blow up the building with a flask which he said contained nitro-glycerine. The man was finally shot

dead with the heln of a marksman. The liquid in the flask was found to be harmless.