Police seek terror link to £27m robbery

Police hunting the raiders who stole an estimated £27million from a Belfast bank are convinced they had inside help - and possibly backing from one of Northern Ireland's terrorist groups.

The gang of up to 20 emptied Christmas takings from the vaults of the Northern Bank into a rubbish truck with almost military efficiency.

Detectives believe the gang may have obtained some of the bank's "failsafe" security codes from someone working in the central Belfast bank and were today interviewing key staff members.

Officers have mapped part of the getaway truck's route out of the city and are examining a burnt-out car found in Drumkeeragh Forest Park, Co Down.

The staggering size of the operation puts it on a par with the 1983 assault on the Brink's-Mat security warehouse near Heathrow. On that occasion gold bullion valued at £26 million was stolen by men posing as security guards.

Suspicions of paramilitary involvement were heightened by the revelation that most of the cash stolen from the bank was in locally printed notes, which would make it almost impossible to launder in such quantities.

"This was not a lucky crime - this was very well organised," said assistant chief constable Sam Kinkaid, who is leading the investigation. The masked gang cleared the bank's vaults in two hours after raiding the homes of two bank officials the night before.