A 25-year-old man has been charged following the aggravated robbery of a bank in Palmerston North earlier today (Monday, 28 September).
The incident happened around 9.40am when police received a call from a member of the public reporting that a robbery was in progress at the ANZ bank on the corner of Ruahine Street and Broadway Avenue.
A number of bank tellers had been threatened by a man with a long-barrelled firearm. He stole an undisclosed sum of cash and then made off in a Mitsubishi Lancer parked outside the bank.
The vehicle was spotted a short time later by a police patrol in the Roslyn area of the city. The car stopped and a man was seen to run from the vehicle into a house in Hulme Street.
Police dogs and AOS were called to the scene and a man was apprehended without incident in the house. At one point AOS had to put out a small fire caused by food left on a stove by the occupants of the house who fled when the man ran into their home.
During the day police carried out scene examinations on the Hulme Street house, another house in the city, the car and the bank.
Cash was recovered from the Hulme Street address and a firearm at the other house. The car was found to have been stolen from Palmerston North earlier in the morning.
The 25-year-old local man will appear at Palmerston North District Court tomorrow morning (Tuesday 29 September) charged with one count of aggravated robbery.
Police are still investigating whether there is any link between today's robbery and an attack on the same bank on 17 September.
Media enquiries should be referred to Communications Manager Kim Perks on 06 351 2546 or 027 234 8256.