NI bank raid: PSNI release man

A man arrested by police investigating a £200,000 bank robbery in Belfast was tonight released without charge.

He was detained following a number of searches in the north of the city yesterday.

The raids came two days after three men broke into the home of a bank employee in Alliance Avenue, north Belfast.

While his partner and one-year-old child were held hostage the man was ordered to fill a bag with money from the Ulster Bank branch at nearby Carlisle Circus.

They were only released when the rucksack filled with bank notes was abandoned on steps a short distance away in Henry Place, around 10am on Friday.

The raid bore parallels with the £26.5m Northern Bank heist in December 2004, widely blamed on the IRA, and the £53m raid on the Securitas depot in Kent last week.

But police have refused to suggest any paramilitary organisation may be involved in the north Belfast robbery.