Armed men loot Rs 1.33 crore from bank cash van

In a daring daylight robbery, armed men looted Rs 1.33 crore from a van belonging to a private bank after firing at its driver in Banur near Rajpura town in this district today.

"The van was on its way from Chandigarh and the cash was to distributed in some of the bank's branches in Banur and Rajpura when the incident occurred," Patiala SSP S Bhupathi told PTI.

He said the unidentified men, believed to be seven in number, were in a Scorpio vehicle and they fired at the van driver leaving him injured before looting the money.

The driver has been hospitalised.

Bhupathi said the armed men had chased the vehicle for a few minutes before intercepting it on the highway at a location where many private educational institutes are located.

Police are now scanning the CCTV footage from the area for clues. It was also being investigated if the robbers had used one more vehicle to commit the crime, an official said.

Bhupathi said that an alert has been sounded across the state and the area where the crime took place.

"We have registered a case under relevant provisions of the law and further investigations were under progress," he added.