Police reveal numbers of heist notes

Police have issued the serial numbers of £1.5 million of the new notes stolen in a Belfast bank robbery.

They urged retailers, banking institutions and the public to look out for £10 notes numbered BC 8500001 to BC 8550000, BC 9100001 to BC 9150000, or BC 9350001 to BC 9400000. Anyone finding one is urged to take it to police immediately.

Northern Bank, the target of the £22 million raid, has yet to tell police the serial numbers of more than £13million in new bank notes, so detectives cannot say whether the gang had started to use the money.

Chief Superintendent Andy Sproule, has defended police against criticism for not catching the robbers. Police only discovered a robbery had taken place when the hostage wife of a bank official was freed and the alarm raised.

"It was two hours before a crime was reported," he said. "That was not the police's fault." He also confirmed that despite the IRA's denial of responsibility it was still "part of the police investigation".