Two questioned over Northern Bank robbery

Two men were being questioned today about the £26.5m (€38m) Northern Bank robbery in Belfast last December.

They were detained in Co Down last night, police said.

Both were taken in for questioning by a team of detectives hunting the gang responsible for the spectacular raid, which the PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde blamed on the IRA.

The two men were arrested in a planned police operation at Kilcoo, near Rathfriland, South Down.

Although gardaí seized almost £3m (€4.4m) – £60,000 (€88,000) of it in Northern Bank notes – during raids in Dublin and Cork last February and which they believe was linked to the raid on the bank’s Belfast HQ, none of the missing millions has been recovered.

Homes belonging to a number of senior republicans in Belfast were searched in the immediate aftermath of the robbery but nobody has yet been charged in connection with it.