Thieves drill into German bank vault and steal property worth tens of millions

Thieves stole tens of millions of euros worth of property from safety deposit boxes inside a German bank vault they drilled into, police said.

Some 2,700 bank customers were affected by the theft in Gelsenkirchen on Monday during the holiday lull, police and the Sparkasse bank said.

Thomas Nowaczyk, a police spokesman, said investigators believed the theft was worth between 10 and 90 million euros (£8.7 and £79 million).

German news agency dpa reported that the theft could be one of the country’s largest heists.

The bank remained closed on Tuesday, when some 200 people showed up demanding to get inside, dpa reported.

A fire alarm summoned police officers and firefighters to the bank branch shortly before 4am on Monday. They found a hole in the wall and the vault ransacked. Police believe a large drill was used to break through the vault’s basement wall.

Witnesses told investigators they saw several men carrying large bags in a nearby parking garage over the weekend.

Video footage from the garage shows masked people inside a stolen vehicle early on Monday, police said.

Gelsenkirchen is about 119 miles (192km) north-west of Frankfurt.