Security camera footage at the Kasikorn Bank in Ayutthaya shows a gunman holding up clerks yesterday.

Bt350,000 stolen in Bangkok; Bt300,000 in Ayuthaya

A lone gunman robbed a Siam City Bank in Bangkok's Sam Yan area of Bt350,000 yesterday afternoon. A few hours later, another gunman held up staff at a Kasikorn Bank in Ayutthaya's Uthai district and made off with nearly Bt300,000.

At about 1pm yesterday, police in Bangkok's Pathumwan district were alerted that a long-haired gunman in his 30s had held two clerks at the Siam City Bank at gunpoint and demanded that they hand over Bt350,000, before he headed toward the Saphan Leaung area.

Deputy Metropolitan Police commander Maj-General Suchart Muankaew said the branch in question had no security guard but that its security camera had captured images of the robber when he walked in at 12.48pm. He said police suspected that the robber had studied the escape route and clerks' behaviour earlier, and that police would study four days' worth of camera footage captured in the bank and shops nearby.

Witnesses claim to have seen the robber park his motorbike in a lane next to the bank, only three blocks from the Saphan Leaung Intersection. This robbery is similar to a hold-up last year at a Government Savings Bank's Sam Yan branch. The robber has not been arrested.

Meanwhile, in Ayutthaya, 20 policemen rushed into the Kasikorn Bank branch at about 3pm after the robbery was reported.

Clerk Warawuth Laoparsert said that a man, about 170-centimetres tall and with a scar on his face, came into the nearly empty bank, hopped behind the counter and, pointing a pistol at the clerk, demanded that cash be put in a bag. Before fleeing the scene, the robber said, "I have to do this because of our society. I'm taking this money to help an ill person," Warawuth recounted.

Ayutthaya police chief Nares Nanthachote said police investigation showed that the robber had fled on an old Honda Wave motorcycle without a licence plate, and was heading towards the Asia Highway. Nares vowed to arrest the man, whose image may have been captured by the security camera on the highway, within seven days.