Baripada, Jan. 14: Three masked youths, armed with revolvers, today looted more than Rs 8 lakh in cash from a rural branch of the Odisha Gramya Bank at Nichuapada, 19km from here.

The robbery took place in the branch located between Baripada and Chitrada under Moroda block, and the criminals are suspected to have fled to Bengal.

The three criminals were speaking in Hindi and Bengali. In the afternoon, when no customer was present at the branch, today being the Makara Sankranti festival, the three entered the bank.

The branch had four employees — manager, one cashier, a clerk and a peon. It had no security guard, no CCTV and not even the sound alarm system. While one of them guarded the entry gate, the other two entered and threatened the manager at gunpoint. They took cash from the cashier and later opened the strong room and took out the money.

Before fleeing, they locked all the four employees in a room adjoining the strong room and bolted it from outside.

They also took away the manager’s mobile phone. On hearing their scream, local people rescued the bank employees from the room.

Sub-divisional police officer Suresh Jena said: “They wore masks and helmets. No one has seen any bike or vehicle. They seem to have fled towards Bengal.”