In a sensational broad daylight loot in Amethi, unidentified miscreants opened fire and robbed Rs 26 lakh from bank employees when the money was being transferred to a UCO Bank branch in a cash van on Saturday.

Local police along with senior officers rushed to the spot after getting information about the loot and sounded an alert in the entire district to intercept the robber.

However, the one-hour-long intensive checking of vehicles proved futile as the miscreants managed to flee safely.

A case was registered in this regard and two teams were formed to crack the case and recover the looted money after arresting the culprits.

Reports said that UCO Bank officials took Rs 26 lakh in cash from Parsoiaya Babuganj branch of the bank and left to transfer the money to the Dhauraha branch on Saturday morning.

As they were on way to the Dhauraha branch, three motorcycle-borne miscreants tried to force the cash van to stop in Bhadar area under Piparpura police station of Amethi.

When the bank officials did not stop the van, the miscreants opened fire and threatened to kill the occupants after which the vehicle was stopped.

As the van stopped, two of the miscreants jumped from the motorcycle and took the staff at gun point. Threatening them with dire consequences, they collected the entire cash from the van and fled the scene, firing a few more rounds in the air to terrorise the witnesses.

Later, the bank officials first informed the incident to their senior officials who in turn informed the local police about it.

Sources said the police detained the staff which was transferring the cash and were interrogating them to get some lead in the case.

The cops also collected the call details record (CDR) of the bank officials to find out if some insider had passed the information about the cash transfer to the miscreants.

However, the police have so far failed to get any lead.

Further investigations are on.