A safe used to supply cash to ATMs was robbed with explosives early Wednesday at the front of the main post office in Roubaix (North), AFP recorded at the scene.
At around 8.30am, “four people forced the transfer box with dynamite” – the outer box where the conveyor holds the funds – according to a La Poste spokesperson in Hauts-de-France interviewed by AFP.
The Lille prosecutor’s office indicated that it had opened an investigation into “theft by an organized gang, criminal association with the intent to prepare a crime, criminal association with the aim of preparing a crime and destruction of property by means of explosives by an organized gang.”
Damage “currently being assessed”
The explosion did not cause any casualties but caused extensive damage to the building’s facade, the spokesman added. The post office was not yet open at the time of the incident, and a psychological unit had been set up to staff it.
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Christophe Lesne, a witness at the scene, said he saw “three people” who he assumed were “technicians” because they were wearing neon vests “fooling around”, “maybe they were lighting torches” around the distributor.
Later, he said he saw “bangs, explosions, smoke”, before people left “with one or two bags (…) in cars”.
The robbers “seized a bag of cash”, and “the damage is being assessed”, the Lille prosecutor’s office told AFP.
An explosion was felt “several hundred meters away”
According to Frédéric Monchaux, deputy secretary of the Alliance union department for the North department who came to the scene, the robbers were prepared because they were “well aware of the methods of transferring money”.
“This is an unusual method,” he said, stressing that the theft was carried out “in the city center”, at a time when “life was starting, people were working or going there”.
He said the explosion was “felt several hundred meters away”, “psychologically complicated” for “post office employees who were inside” and “all the residents nearby, passers-by”.
