Gang use helicopter in Hollywood-style raid on Swedish cash depot

Sweden has seen its fair share of daring cash robberies in recent years, from fake bombs used as decoys to the hold-up of luggage handlers at airports. But a raid by a gang that landed from a helicopter on to the roof of a cash depot in Stockholm today and loaded up with bags of money has foxed police.

The masked gunmen jumped out on to the roof of the G4S cash depot in the Västberga area just after 5am, smashed windows with a sledgehammer and made their way inside. Around 20 staff were in the building at the time of the attack, many believed to have been involved in counting money.

Once the gang was inside, witnesses reported hearing several loud bangs. The helicopter casually hovered for 15 minutes waiting for the men to load up bags of stolen cash from the roof-top. One witness told Swedish TV: "Two men hoisted themselves down. I saw when they hoisted up money, too."

Meanwhile, a police Swat team was seen desperately trying to enter the cash depot with a battering ram.

The police were unable to call out their own helicopters because suspected explosives had been placed at the aircraft hangar in a bag marked "bomb". "We've found what we believe is a live bomb to hinder our response," a police spokesman, Rikard Johansson, said. Small spiked objects had also been spread out on the road near the depot in an attempt to hinder the police from approaching the scene.

"I've never experienced anything like it," said a police spokesman, Kjell Lindgren.

Another spokesman added: "What we know is that they forced down some kind of wall to get in. We don't want to comment on how they did it."

No staff were injured in the robbery. Investigators said the thieves wore masks and were believed to have carried automatic weapons and detonated explosives during the 20-minute raid.

An abandoned, stolen Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter was later found in a recreational area near a lake north of Stockholm, about 15 miles from the cash depot.

One witness living near the helicopter's landing site said he had been watching a news report of the robbery when he heard engine noise at 7.30am, he looked out and saw a white and red helicopter flying low over his house.

"I thought it can't have been the one [involved in the robbery]. But now I realise the helicopter I saw is the one that landed here in Skavloten."

The British-based G4S, one of the world's largest security companies, did not say how much money was in the depot at the time of the raid. A spokesman said the gang had made off with "an unconfirmed sum of money".

The Stockholm depot stores cash that is transported to banks and other businesses in Sweden. Swedish media speculated that the depot could have been holding several million Swedish kronor, including money to be transported to cash machines. The company offered a reward for information without specifying the sum.

One person was detained in a Stockholm suburb in connection with the robbery, but was not officially declared a suspect.

Last year, a group of men broke into a mail processing centre in Gothenburg, paralysing large parts of Sweden's second largest city after dropping spikes, burning cars in different areas and leaving suspected explosive devices in the centre.

In 2006, Gothenburg's international airport was partially closed after masked men rammed a gate and held up luggage handlers as they were unloading crates of foreign currency worth 7.8m kronor (£700,000) from a passenger aircraft. Four years earlier, robbers pulled off a similar robbery at Arlanda airport, Stockholm, when staff were loading foreign currency worth 43m kronor on to an aircraft.

Past hauls

Brink's-Mat

1983: thieves raided a warehouse at Heathrow, with inside information from a security guard. They threatened staff with petrol and stole £26m of gold bullion and diamonds.

Corsica

1992: five men hijacked a helicopter and stole mail bags reportedly containing 10m francs, after attacking a plane at Bastia airport.

Millennium Star diamond

2000: robbers with a JCB broke in to the Millennium Dome in Greenwich. Speedboat escape foiled by tip-off to police.

Securitas

2006: £53m stolen from a depot in Kent after manager was abducted by a gang posing as police officers.

Lauren Goodchild

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