Belfast police make new robbery appeal

Detectives hunting the gang who stole £25.6m (€38m) from the Northern Bank have established up to 1,000 lines of inquiry, they revealed today.

But with the IRA blamed for the heist in Belfast city centre, officers stressed they were not prepared to make rash arrests.

As new CCTV footage showing one of two bank employees carrying cash out of the Northern Bank’s headquarters on the night of the heist, was put on display, the detectives heading the investigation also appealed for the driver of a car who nearly knocked down one of those taken hostage to contact police.

Superintendent Andy Sproule said assistant bank manager Kevin McMullan’s wife who was abducted from their home in Loughinisland, Co Down, and held for 23 hours stumbled distressed into the path of the vehicle when she was eventually released.

He also disclosed that his team of officers are working with international agencies in their bid to track down the robbers.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has furiously rejected Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s public assessment that the IRA carried out the December 20 raid and challenged police to provide any evidence to back up the claim.

Mr Sproule today refused to provide any of the details that led to the Provisionals being identified but he said: “I don’t intend to go through all the inquiries we have done.

“There are maybe a thousand lines of inquiry and we have interviewed hundreds of people.”