A GANG in Brazil has pulled off one of history’s biggest bank robberies after tunnelling into the vault of a central bank building and making off with an estimated £38 million.

Officials are still working out how much money was taken after the gang tunnelled 80m under neighbouring houses and a high street to come up under the vault of a regional Brazilian central bank office in Fortaleza, Brazil’s fifth-biggest city.

Once under the vault, the gang cut a hole through the 1.1m thick steel and reinforced concrete floor of the 500 sq m strongbox.

Officials found the hole in their vault when the office was opened on Monday morning after having been shut all weekend. Five containers in the safe had been opened and emptied of about three million banknotes.

The haul weighed about 3½ tonnes and was composed of used 50 real banknotes, worth about £12.50 each.

Despite the huge amount of money involved, the robbers got away cleanly as no alarm went off and no hostages were taken during the raid. Police have already extended their search for the gang beyond Ceará, the northeastern state of which Fortaleza is the capital.

The money taken had been withdrawn from circulation for testing and the bank planned to destroy notes in poor condition and put the rest back into circulation. Made up of used, non- sequential and commonly accepted banknotes, the robbers’ haul is virtually untraceable.

Police and an internal bank investigation will focus on how the gang managed to bypass the bank’s alarm system and the movement sensors in the vault. Cameras in the bank are said to have recorded nothing unusual after the office closed at 6pm on Friday. Police will also examine if the gang received inside information.

The tunnel used by the gang was traced by police back to a house one street away from the bank. The house had been rented since April to several men who had set up and run a landscape gardening company from it.

Called Synthetic Lawns and supposedly specialising in natural and artificial garden lawns, the company acted as a front for the men’s activities in the house. Police suspect that the gang chose a landscaping business to help to explain the movement of large amounts of earth from the property.

The tunnel running from the house was 4m below street level, had 70cm of headroom and was propped up with wooden supports and sandbags. It was also fitted out with plastic sheeting, electric light and air conditioning to provide some comfort for the tunnellers while they worked.

Up to ten men who are believed to have frequented the rented house are being sought in connection with the raid.

Local residents said that the men had been friendly and several of them drank in local bars in the months leading up to the robbery.

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