Bank robbers take over entire Brazilian city and leave locals to pick up cash left on streets

Some 30 bank robbers armed with “bazookas” took over a city in southern Brazil, setting cars on fire, starting gun fights with police and eventually leaving money strewn across the streets to encourage residents to run into the road – enabling their getaway. 

The gang – comprised of 30 masked men, thought to be split between 10 cars – arrived in the city of Criciúma, in the state of Santa Catarina, just before midnight (3am GMT) on Monday – with the aim of robbing a string of banks, including Banco do Brasil.

After learning of the attack, Clésio Salvaro, the city’s mayor, issued a video plea on Twitter to the city – home to just over 150,000 people – in which he warned residents to stay indoors, and that their city was “under siege”. 

“At this moment the city remains under siege. This is an attack of large proportions, [with] very well-trained criminals,” he said, before adding: “So, right now, the mayor of Criciúma is asking you to remain in your homes – do not go out. Be careful and shelter in your home ... Tell your relatives and friends that nobody must leave their homes. Let’s let the police do their job.”

According to local media, gunfire began at midnight with military police quickly reporting that a fire had been lit in a tunnel that leads to the centre of the city. Officials believe this was one of the gang’s many ploys to keep as many police at bay as possible.  

Video footage, filmed by residents and uploaded to social media, showed hooded and armed men dressed in black walking the streets with at least six locals being held hostage.

Local media reports that hostages were used as “human shields” at one point, after the gang forced six civilians to sit in the middle of the road and block police cars from being able to reach the bank. Only two people are believed to have been injured in the crossfire between the criminals and police: a security guard and a police officer. 

In one clip, a woman can be heard sobbing as she hears what sounds like an explosion being set off in the distance. “For the love of God,” she can be heard saying. It was later revealed that the gang used explosives to blow up at least one bank they hit. 

“I have no idea where they’re from but they were professionals. Never in the history of this city have we experienced something like this,” Mr Salvaro, the mayor, said of the gang afterwards.

More video footage showed the convoy of cars – believed to be the robbers – leaving the city very calmly after the attack, plus clips which showed roads covered with money which some believe the robbers planted as means of getting residents to come out onto the streets and deter police from opening fire again. 

Locals were seen running to pick up any cash they could find. One man, Zel Florizel, posted a video to Twitter in which people are seen frantically picking up bills left behind by the gang. 

“People take money scattered on the floor after a mega robbery in the city of Criciúma - Brazil,” Mr Florizel wrote. Despite the tragedy, he said: “Christmas will be better for many people in need.”

He also revealed that “the gang [looked] specialised and was armed with bazooka”.

Police have since said that four residents were arrested after they picked up more than 800,000 reais (£112,000) from the streets.

Banco do Brasi, the group’s main target, is yet to confirm how much money the thieves got away with.

Samira Bueno, the executive director at the Brazilian Forum of Public Safety, told reporters that this was one in a string of meticulously planned attacks on banks in recent years that appear to be ripped from “the scene of a movie”.

It is thought the gang purposely targeted a smaller city, in which officials would be ill-prepared to take on such a large number of attackers.

Ms Bueno said it was “curious to see how unprepared the security forces were to deal with this incident”. 

“Clearly it was the work of a group that is highly organised and specialised,” she told The New York Times.

“The criminals clearly planned, prepared and invested beforehand,” Anselmo Cruz, a police supervisor, told local media on Tuesday. “This points to a group that came from outside. We don’t have criminals with this profile in Santa Catarina.”

There are currently no reports of any of the robbers being detained, though investigators from multiple parts of Brazil are said to have joined forces to locate and catch the gunmen.