Bhubaneswar, May 14: A bank robbery was foiled at an unguarded branch of a nationalised bank at Satyabhamapur near Balianta on the city outskirts last night as the siren of the strong room sounded in time.

Three persons armed with gun and sharp weapons had reached the bank on a motorcycle and tried to break the front grill.

“Hearing the noise, I rushed to the spot but they thrashed me and later tied my hands. One of them held me at gunpoint and two others went inside,” said Manoj Rout, a security guard of a school situated a few meters away.

However, as soon as the two who went inside tried to break the strong room, the siren went off.

Scared, they left the place in a hurry.

Bank officials said that Rs 11 lakh in cash was stacked in the locker of the strong room.

While a closed-circuit camera was there inside the bank, it was not functioning properly. Besides, the bank did not deploy any security guard.

The commissionerate police in February 4 had conducted a review of the security system in the wake of loot of Rs 17 lakh in front of a bank at Damana Square.

The police had asked bank officials to install high-quality closed circuit cameras along with deployment of adequate trained security guards.

But a number of banks have not complied with the directives of the police.

“We would again convene a meeting with bank officials to ensure that they enhance their security. Actions will be initiated against banks not complying with the security measures,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

In a related incident, three youths, including a juvenile, was today arrested in connection with a car robbery from Saheed Nagar area.

The police arrested two of the accused when they were trying to flee from the city with the stolen car.

The police arrested Abhaya Senapati, 24, Rashmi Barik, 20, and a 17-year-old in connection with the crime.

The trio had assaulted the driver near Saheed Nagar last night and took away the car.

Later the owner of the car Ramachandra Sahu, a resident of Nayagarh in Bhubaneswar, had lodged a complaint with the Saheed Nagar police station in connection with the incident.