BATTLE WITH BANDITS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1930, Page 16

BATTLE WITH BANDITS

ROBBERS ESCAPE WITH £750.

POLICE USE MACHINE-GUN.

The main street of Leipzig .where thousands of foreign business men, in eluding many hundreds from Great Britain, recently assembled for the great international fair and exhibition, was the scene at noon on June 11 of a dramatic chase of armed bandits by police and fire brigades in motor-cars. The bandits, who had shot down and robbed a bank messenger of his bag containing £750 in cash, kept up a running fire from their revolvers, injuring two of their pursuers. Finally, after their own high-powered racing motor-cars had been disabled by the machine-gun shots of the police, they succeeded in escaping in a tramcar with their booty. For the time being the Leipzig police lost all trace of the bandits, but extensive cordons were formed in the surrounding districts and tho Berlin police were called in to cooperate. The atack on the bank messenger, which took place in a crowded place in the centre of the city, was witnessed by hundreds of people. Herr Goldacker, the messenger, had just left his bank and was walking down the street when a brown sports model motor-car suddenly drew up opposite him. Three masked men jumped out and, pointing their revolvers at him, cried: "Hands up!” Beofre' Goldacker could comply with their demand, however, each of the three men fired at him, hitting him in the body and leg. He fell, and from his prostrate figure the bandits snatched the bag, jumped into their motor-car, and dashed .off.-

All the motor-vehicles in the street at once joined in pursuit of the bandits. Other motor-cars going in the opposite direction tried to stop them. The bandits’ motor-car, however, which was siibsequently found to have been stolen from the Marquis de Feronda, the secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Berlin, was too quick for them, and, dashing skilfully in and out of the motor-cars and carts which tried to block their'way, the bandits succeeded in escaping.

A passing ambulance waggon of the .fire brigade, took up the chase. The bandits, however, when the ambulance got perilously close to them, opened fire on it, and after hitting the car 15 times, injured one of the occupants and succeeded in puncturing the radiator, so that the ambulance was unable to proceed. A group of labourers at work in one of /to streets next tried to hold up the gunmen with’ a hastily constructed barricade. The robbers, however, fired on the workmen, one of whom they injured seriously, and without reducing their speed, dashed through the barricade, which they wrecked. The police motor-car now joined the chase and with a machine-gun opened fire on the bandits’ car, which in turn was econ disabled and brought to a standstill.

The'gunmen, however, succeeded in jumping on to a passing traincar, of which they immediately took command. One of tho bandits pointed his pistol at the head of the driver of the tramcar a,nd took his place at the controls, driving the car at a frenzied speed through the streets, while the other two bandits held up the conductor and passengers with their pistols. When the police motor-car, which had been badly delayed through a collision with the bandits’ wrecked motor-car, at last caught up with the tramcar, the bandits were no longer on it. They had tied up the driver and conductor and, leaving the tramcar with its terrified load of passengers, to career driverless through the streets, jumped off and made their escape.