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Gunmen seize 55 mln USD in bank van heist in Libya

29 October 2013 01:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A group of gunmen attacked a central bank van in Libya's western city of Sirte, seizing about 55 million U.S. dollars, the official LANA news agency reported on Monday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The local branch of Central Bank of Libya in Sirte declared that "the van was transporting 53 million Libyan dinars (about 43. 1 million U.S. dollars) and about 12 million-dollar foreign currencies in euros and dollars," said the report.

The big amount of money was first taken from the Libyan capital of Tripoli to Sirte by plane and then was loaded on the van in a special container, one of the security staff who escorted the transfer was quoted as saying.

He said the gunmen arrived at the spot by two cars and assaulted the van, stealing the money.

The searching operation is underway in Sirte to arrest the armed assailants.