Durgapur, May 29: Seven masked men with revolvers walked away with Rs 6 lakh from a United Bank of India branch in Purulia today, two days after a robbery at another UBI branch in the district.

Superintendent of police Ashok Prasad said the dacoits fled towards Jharkhand on motorbikes. “We are yet to find any Maoist link although the rebels are active in the area. The robbers may have come from Jharkhand.”

The police said the gang of seven — one of whom wore khaki — arrived at the bank in Suisa, about 380km from Calcutta, on four motorbikes around 1pm. They spoke Bengali. “The bank is on the first floor of a two-storey building. There were only three customers when five of the robbers walked in and asked for the cashier while the other two stood guard outside,” an officer said.

After the cashier handed them the keys to the vault and the cash box, “the dacoits stuffed the cash in a leather bag and locked up all the eight employees and the customers inside a toilet before fleeing”, the officer said.

“They disconnected the phone lines and took away six cellphones and two gold rings from those present.”

On Tuesday, a masked gunman had robbed the UBI’s Adra branch of Rs 5 lakh.