An armed gang has stolen £25 million (€36 million) from a security depot in England after posing as police and abducting the manager and his family, police said tonight.
There are unconfirmed reports that the final figure could be up to £40 million, making it the biggest heist in British history.
The Bank of England confirmed around £25 million was taken in the raid. The manager of the Securitas cash depot south of the Thames, in Tonbridge, Kent, was pulled over while driving yesterday evening by what he believed was an unmarked police car, Kent Police said.
The manager of the depot was stopped by men posing as police officers as he drove home from work yestrday evening, police said. He was handcuffed and held captive.
Meanwhile, two more bogus policemen visited the manager's wife and young son, told them the manager had been involved in an accident, and took them from their home.
The manager was driven to a meet with a white van. He was tied up and driven to an unknown location, where he was threatened at gunpoint and told to "co-operate or his family would be at risk", a Kent Police spokesman said.
He was later taken to the Vale Road security depot where least six men, some armed with handguns, threatened and tied up around 15 members of staff. The gang loaded an undisclosed amount of cash into a white lorry before driving off at about 2.15am.
Kent Police were alerted about an hour later when the shocked but physically unhurt staff activated an alarm. The manager, his wife and son were also uninjured.
Officials said there was still some confusion over the exact amount of money stolen. It was not yet clear whether other cash as well as the Bank of England funds had been taken.
A Bank of England spokeswoman said: "We have already been reimbursed by Securitas for the initial estimate of £25 million and any further sum will be reimbursed to the Bank as soon as the amount is known.
"The Governor today asked for a review of the security arrangements for the storage of banknotes."
Local police said the robbery had clearly been planned in detail over some time. "Someone must have information that will help us in the hunt for the robbers," Superintendent Paul Gladstone said.
If the report that the final haul is £40 million is confirmed, the robbery would eclipse the previous largest total of £26.5 million, which was taken in the Northern Bank raid in Belfast in December 2004. In that robbery, which was blamed on the Provisional IRA, staff members were also held hostage and threatened.