Midnapore, April 30: Two young men pinned down a guard at the entrance to a bank as a third sprang from behind and shot him.

A second guard who stepped out of the office was gunned down, too, with his colleague’s Insas rifle.

The State Bank of India branch — in Doijuri village, West Midnapore — was not looted but the constables’ automatic rifles were robbed.

The assailants waved the guns at the bank employees and went back to the motorcycles where three of their comrades were waiting.

Police are certain that they were Maoists. “Had they been ordinary dacoits, they’d have looted the bank,” said superintendent R. Rajsekharan.

One of the six, all in their 20s, was a woman. They arrived at the second-floor bank 10 minutes after transactions had closed at 2pm.

“Before constable Rashidul Islam could react, two of them held him while another snatched his rifle and shot him thrice,” said the owner of a paan shop adjacent to the building housing the bank.

As Rashidul slumped to the ground, the three shouted “Maobad zindabad” and ran up the stairs to the first floor.

Samir Sardar, who was hurrying down after hearing the shots, was also shot thrice.

“He fell on the stairs. The trio entered the bank and asked the employees not to raise the alarm. Then they fled, the rifles slung across their shoulders,” an officer of the Binpur police station said.

Branch manager Gopesh Gope said most employees were “having tiffin” during the raid. There were about five or six customers, too.

Businessman Sanjit Kar, who went towards the door on hearing the gunshots, saw the youths rushing up. “One of them aimed a rifle at me and ordered me to stand in a corner. I obeyed him,” said Kar.

Gope was going through a statement of accounts. “I sprang up from my seat, but three men threatened us with dire consequences if we didn’t keep quiet. I quickly returned to my chamber,” he said.

In February, three CPM leaders were killed in Belpahari, another Maoist hotbed 20km away. At least 20 security personnel have been killed in West Midnapore since 2004.

Police in Nadia’s Hanskhali arrested three CPI (Maoist) activists tonight. One of them is a state committee member of the outfit, Ajit Sarkar.