KEY POINTS:
Police in Christchurch are checking possible connections between a bank robbery this morning and another nine days ago.
In both cases a Ford Telstra stationwagon had been stolen for a getaway vehicle.
In the latest incident police are hunting for a man who threatened Bank of New Zealand tellers with a small knife and hammer just before 11.30am today, ordering them to put cash into two yellow supermarket bags he was carrying.
Police said the man walked up and down hitting the hammer on the counter of the bank at the corner of Cashel St and Fitzgerald Ave while waiting for the bags to be filled.
He then ran to the bank's rear carpark and tried to start a Ford Telstra stationwagon stolen earlier from Northlands shopping mall in north Christchurch, before abandoning the car and fleeing toward Linwood suburb.
A bank customer was understood to have followed the robber out of the bank, but was unable to give chase.
The robber was described as olive-skinned, aged in his 30s, of medium build and about 180cm tall. He was wearing a black balaclava, black trackpants and a red-and-black bush shirt.
It was the second bank robbery in Christchurch in nine days.
A man got away with an unknown amount of money after threatening Westpac Barrington branch staff with a chisel or screwdriver on January 24.
Police found a stolen Ford Telstra stationwagon abandoned in a nearby street with the engine still running. That car had been stolen earlier that day from the Blenheim Rd Warehouse carpark.
Detective Sergeant Mark Reid, of Christchurch police, told NZPA police were checking for any similarities between the two robberies.
"I believe the cars are similar and that's a starting point," he said.
- NZPA
