Bank heist suspect arrested in southern Vietnam

The suspect, who has not been named, allegedly held up a bank in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang last Thursday and escaped with VND945 million ($42,000) in cash.

Provincial police said the suspect was proceeding in a taxi towards Ho Chi Minh City when he was arrested. They said he’d planned the heist for several days before buying a motorbike online and riding it to a Vietinbank branch in the province’s Chau Thanh District.

Disguising himself with a mask, hat, coat and gloves, he used a gun to subdue a security guard, before telling a bank staff to put money in a bag for him. There were two bank employees, one security guard and two customers present in the branch at the time.

After he took the cash, he drove towards HCMC before abandoning the bike and taking a cab, police said.

Earlier this month, police in the central province of Khanh Hoa arrested two men who robbed a local bank and escaped with more than VND4.4 billion ($188,200) in cash.

After they were caught, a search of the men’s houses netted four handmade guns and dozens of bullets of the same kind found in the robbed bank. The duo had taken five guns with them when committing the robbery, police said.