thieves flee with hostages strapped to the roofs of cars

Theft of films in Brazil. A group of bank robbers tied hostages to the roofs of their cars as the police fled to the city of Araçatuba in southern Brazil.

Police said that at least three people died, including a suspect.

The authorities said more than 50 people participated in the robbery, blocking the streets with burning vehicles and placing explosive devices through the city.

Rob banks, something common

Large-scale bank robberies have become more frequent in recent years, and hostages are used as human shields.

The mayor of Araçatuba, Dilares Borges, said police had struggled to intervene.

“The police cannot attack, they cannot face them because there is too many lives at stake“he told Band TV.

He said he was not yet sure whether the thieves freed the hostages, but said security forces had regained control From the city center.

Schools will be closed on monday and the mayor urged people to stay inside, warning them of the danger of explosive devices.

How did the robbery go?

Heavily armed band of men attacked three banks in the center of Araçatuba in the early hours of Monday, local time.

After the robbery, the gang taken several hostages and surrounded the local military police station.

Gang members have also blocked the main streets of access to the city set cars on firelocal media reported.

Record TV reporter Yuri Macri posted a video which he said he was showing two of the cars escaping. The first has a person strapped to their roof and another to their hood, while in the second a person can be seen crouching on the hood.

Cars flee at dawn, even at night. In the background, the shots of the pursuit are heard.

CCTV footage posted by another Twitter user shows several cars driving through the city, some with people strapped to the hoods, while another person can be seen raising their hands while standing through the roof opening the van.

Blows and explosions

Many residents said they heard gunshots and even the sound of explosions.

Police confirmed the deaths of a suspect and two other people, but did not provide additional information on how they died. Three others were injured.

They also said they stopped two suspects. But the rest fled.

Not easy how much money the attackers tookBut some videos claim to show a local picking up tickets on the street.

Drones

The G1 news site reports that the gang used drones to monitor police movements from the air.

This is not the first time that Araçatuba has been attacked by bank robbers. In 2017, criminals took control of several strategic points of the city, they attacked police stations and blocked roads in connection with his theft from a private security company.

A trend

These well-planned flights are part of a phenomenon that Brazilians call New “Cangaço”, referring to a term that was first used to describe the banditry that ravaged parts of Brazil in the 1920s and 1930s.

The small and medium-sized towns they were the prime targets.

According to security expert Guaracy Mingardi, these large-scale thefts became more frequent around 2015. The targets are banks and companies that store and transport valuables.

Dozens of criminals take part in a single raid, many of them heavily armed with machine guns and sometimes explosives.

While most of the raids were carried out in Brazil, there was at least one case in which a Brazilian gang carried out a spectacular robbery in neighboring Paraguay.

Araçatuba is a town of about 200,000 inhabitants, 500 km from the town of San Pablo.

Source: ANSA and BBC news