The 10-foot long and four-foot wide tunnel was dug from right next to the bank in India
A gang of thieves stole more than £100,000 worth of gold from a bank in India after digging a 10ft tunnel straight into the vault.
The passage, measuring some 4ft-wide, was dug in next to the State Bank of India’s Bhauti branch in Uttar Pradesh.
The criminals crawled through the tunnel and reportedly disabled the alarm system on December 23.
They then turned the only CCTV camera away from them and opened the vault with a gas cutter – similar to a blow torch – which can cut through metal.
Police are still investigating but it is believed the operation was pulled off with the help of an inside man familiar with the bank’s construction and architecture.
Footage shows the entrance to the small tunnel.
Some 29 people had taken loans against the gold worth more than 10 million Indian rupees, the bank manager said.
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Last month, Indian officers claimed 195kg of weed had vanished from the police station because rats ate it.
Officers said ‘fearless mice’ had ‘destroyed’ the stock while it was in storage.
Judge Sanjay Chaudhary said: ‘Rats are tiny animals and they have no fear of the police. It’s difficult to protect the drug from them.’
This is not the first time rodents have been blamed by an Indian police force.
Judge Sanjay mentioned a case where police said ‘some’ of a whopping 386kg stash of weed had been eaten by rats.
An estimated 700kg is currently sitting unprotected in police stations in the Mathura district, according to the BBC.
‘All of it is under danger of infestation by rats,’ he said.
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Some 29 people had taken loans against the gold.
