KARACHI: Four robbers broke open around three dozen lockers at a branch of private bank near Karachi’s Sakhi Hassan area on Saturday night and made off with valuables worth millions of rupees.

The robbers entered the bank at around 9pm and left early Sunday morning at 5am, Senior Superintendent of Police (SPP) Central Malik Murtaza said. During their 8-hour long stay inside the branch, they broke open 34 lockers, he added.

A security guard of the bank went out to have dinner with his friend, the police officer relayed. When he returned after having dinner and opened the bank’s door, the suspects standing close by forced their way into it along with him and held him and other guard hostage, he said.

He said the way robbers committed the heist shows that they had prior inside information.

“They had brought a gas cutter and two cylinders along with them,” SSP Malik Murtaza said, adding further investigation is underway. The robbers also took away the bank’s digital video recorder (DVR).

Meanwhile, the police have taken two security guards into custody and are interrogating them.

This is a second bank heist in the port city in less than a month. On March 17, four armed men had plundered a branch of a bank at the New Karachi’s Do-Minute Chowrangi.