The heist took place in the western city of Gelsenkirchen and the perpetrators reportedly managed to empty over 3,000 compartments containing money, jewels and gold inside the vault, police said on Tuesday.
According to police investigators, the robbers entered the vault by drilling their way in through a parking garage. Investigators believe the robbers then spent a large part of the past weekend inside the vault, busy breaking open the safes.
Men with big bags
It was not until early Monday morning that the authorities realized what had happened when a fire alarm went off and the fire department and an ambulance arrived at the scene and discovered the hole.
Witnesses at the scene stated that they saw several men carrying large bags on the stairs of the parking garage on Sunday night.
Surveillance footage from the garage shows a black Audi with several masked people leaving the building early Monday. The car's license plates had previously been stolen in Hanover.
“Very professional”
A police source told AFP that the burglary was "very professionally carried out" and likened it to the Hollywood film "Ocean's Eleven."
A large amount of prior knowledge and/or a large number of criminals would be required to plan and carry out something like this, the source said.
Hundreds of worried bank customers gathered outside the bank on Tuesday, but were prevented by police from entering the premises. The bank is closed for security reasons after several employees were threatened, police said.
We are still on site and monitoring the situation, a police spokesperson said, but added that "the situation has calmed down significantly."
