Standard Charted Bank in Francistown was last week robbed of P179 000 by four assailants who are currently on the run.
The Detective Superintendent of No. 15 District in Francistown, Thomas Junior Letebele, confirmed to the Sunday Standard in an interview that in the early hours of Saturday they were alerted of the robbery.
“The information we heard from the Standard Chartered Bank employees when we arrived at the scene is that the culprits produced an object that looked like a gun and robbed the bank and escaped in a vehicle,” he said.
Letebele said that the men are said to have been speaking a language in the lines of Ndebele or Zulu. He appealed to the public to assist them with information to help them arrest the criminals.
Letebele said that no one was injured in the course of the robbery although some employees were treated for trauma and discharged.
“Such kind of incidents can be of great concern, especially that they may cause a threat to our investors in the country and the business community at large,” he said, adding that it is high time that the business community reinforced its security, especially the banks, which he advised to treat each person with caution.
He added that a few days before the incident there had been another robbery in which a man was robbed of his vehicle near Foley area, a few kilometers from Tonota along the A1 road.
He said that the owner of the vehicle had given a lift to some strangers in the evening and on the way they produced a gun, forced him out and took his vehicle.
“The vehicle was later found dumped here in Francistown and we suspect the bank robbers are still the same culprits who robbed the man because the description of the vehicle used in the bank robbery matches the vehicle we found,” he said.
Letebele warned that motorists should be careful when giving people lifts, especially in the late hours as it could lead to such incidents.
