Gulf Today Report

In an audacious bank heist, thugs in Brazil bombed and fired high-caliber weapons at police in the middle of the night and scooted away with bags of cash.

And that’s not the end. They left reams of cash in the streets to be pocketed by locals.

This is no scene from popular Netflix series ‘Money Heist.’

The incident happened on Monday night in the southern city of Criciuma. Authorities described it as a planned robbery.

The robbery lasted nearly two hours.

Two people were injured. One was a police officer.

Police look at equipment suspected of being used to make explosives in Criciuma. AFP

Petrifying images shared on social media showed men armed with automatic weapons take hostages, firing randomly. The men got away in a fleet of cars.

Video shared on social media showed robbers left cash scattered across the streets.

Residents came out in numbers to collect the notes from the streets.

A burnt-out truck blocks the military police battalion station in Criciuma. Reuters

The police said four people have been arrested who collected part of the bills that were thrown to the ground due to the explosion.

Authorities have located 810,000 reais ($152,660).
Local media reported that there were 30 robbers involved in the heist.

Brazil has a long history of bank heists, and major lenders have struggled with a wave of violent robberies in recent years as criminals have mastered the use of explosives to access cash.