![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4JVJYK9_AFP__20251230__89AJ2WE__v1__HighRes__GermanyCrimeBank_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nThis handout photo taken on December 29, 2025 in Gelsenkirchen, western Germany, and handed out by the Police Gelsenkirchen shows a giant hole in a wall of the bank vault of a Sparkasse bank branch after the unknown perpetrator(s) broke in during the Christmas holidays.
\nPhoto: Handout \/ Police Gelsenkirchen \/ AFP\n<\/p>\n
Robbers used a large drill to break into a German savings bank’s vault room and steal cash, gold and jewelry worth some 30 million euros (NZ$60.8m), police said Tuesday (local time).<\/p>\n
The heist in the western city of Gelsenkirchen saw the thieves break into more than 3000 safe deposit boxes, they said.<\/p>\n
While the criminals remained at large, hundreds of distressed bank customers massed outside the branch on Tuesday demanding information, but were kept at bay by police.<\/p>\n
According to police, the robbers drilled their way into the underground vault room of the Sparkasse savings bank from a parking garage.<\/p>\n
Investigators suspect the gang spent much of the weekend inside, breaking open the deposit boxes.<\/p>\n
The break-in came to light after a fire alarm was triggered in the early hours of Monday and emergency services discovered the hole.<\/p>\n
Witnesses reported seeing several men carrying large bags in the stairwell of the parking garage during the night from Saturday to Sunday.<\/p>\n
Footage from security cameras has also shown a black Audi RS 6 leaving the parking garage early Monday morning, with masked persons inside.<\/p>\n
The car’s license plate had been stolen earlier in the city of Hanover, police said.<\/p>\n
A police spokesman told AFP that the break-in was “indeed very professionally executed”<\/a>, likening it to the heist movie Ocean’s Eleven.<\/p>\n