Basirhat, June 12: An armed gang today robbed a bank of about Rs 9.7 lakh in North 24-Parganas.

Around 1.45 pm, nine men on three motorcycles arrived at the Jhimli branch of the Bank of India in Basirhat, about 80 km from Calcutta, police said.

While two walked up to the cashier’s counter and held him at gunpoint, the third barged into the manager’s cabin. By then, the others had taken up position at the counters and the bank’s entrance.

The criminals forced the cashier to hand over the keys and locked all the 11 employees in a room before cleaning out the cash. The heist was over in half an hour.

Branch manager Shyamaprasad Banerjee said it was around closing time when the men raided the bank.

“Usually, we don’t get too many customers at that hour and the gang seemed aware of it. It appeared to be a well-planned operation,” Banerjee said.

“We are trying to find out if it was a local gang. We are questioning the employees to find out if any of them had provided a tip-off,” said North 24-Parganas superintendent of police Praveen Kumar. He confirmed the gang took away Rs 9.73 lakh.