Police are scrambling to find a group of bandits after they pulled off what may Prove to be the most daring and lawless armed heist in Belize's history.
At least six, and possibly as many as 9 men armed with machine guns stormed into the Belize Bank branch in the heart of Orange Walk Town at noon today.
Alfonso Noble has the story from Orange Walk.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
The body of one of the presumed robbers lay at the bank's door on Market Lane in Orange Walk Town. According to one man who was inside the bank at around 11:45 this morning 6 heavily armed masked men entered with a single purpose.
Eyewitness,
"I was at the front desk, at the first teller and I saw the reaction from the manager. He kind of slammed down at the table he was sitting at and he pointed towards the door. When I looked in that direction I saw four men walked in with weapons and masked on them and they said this was a bank holdup."
"The first person that went in had like a point 45 handgun and I also saw a small machine gun (like an UZI) and I saw someone with a short pump action and one had a M-16."
Alfonso Noble,
"You were lying on the ground, what were you able to hear?"
Eyewitness,
"I actually heard them telling the tellers to hand over the money and to open all the draws and hand over the keys cause they came here for the cash. This actually took like a minute or two and then walked out from the behind the counter and when they stepping outside they ran into the police."
Their exit was interrupted by this patrol car that arrived on the scene. As the men tried to exit the police officers opened fire and the gunmen returned fire. In the exchange, one police detainee who happened to be in the back seat of patrol car was shot in the leg. As for the robbers one of them was hit and an awaiting black Econoline van that was waiting outside fled the scene. The others then were trapped forcing them to secure another transport.
Eyewitness,
"During that gunfire, they actually picked up the general manager and assistant manager and in Spanish they said they were going to use them as shields to walkout. Fortunately they used the KBH officer first and then they used the manager who went outside with a sign telling them to hold their fire because he is a hostage. And then they went back inside because they had no transport so they were asking for a key and the manager asked for a key and they went out.
Alfonso Noble,
"At this time what was going through your mind?"
Eyewitness,
"Because of the situation in Belize and as a businessman I just went down on the ground and stayed down. I didn't look at the ground because they probably would have said I wanted to identify them so I just stayed on the ground until I knew they were gone."
The black getaway van was found at around 2:30 this afternoon in a cane field in San Roman Village north of Orange Walk Town. The bank's manager Efrain Martinez and assistant bank manager Lucy Cervantes were also found but 20 miles away in San Jose Village where they had been released.
This evening an all out manhunt was launched to capture the fleeing robbers who are presumably making their way north. Now police are left to pick up bullet shells and are trying to ascertain the identity of the fallen bank robber.
With one dead - police are looking for 8 suspects. When they ran out of the bank one group took the hostages in the bank manager's four runner, because the others had sped off in a black Econoline van - which was the getaway vehicle but was compromised when it came under fire. But not everyone escaped, police managed to shoot one of the men waiting outside- but he ran off and jumped into the river for his escape. The van was found abandoned on the Ran Roman Road in a cane field with blood on the seats. The red 4-runner was found abandoned around 6:00 pm near San Victor Village in the Corozal District.
The men are believed to be a combination of Mexicans and possibly Salvadorans. They are believed to be heading north - after the escape vehicle was left abandoned in San Roman village. We'll have more on this in tomorrow's newscast.