Gunmen rob airliner of cash as stunned passengers watch

GOTHENBURG - Passengers on a flight from London to Sweden looked on in amazement as masked gunmen staged a runway robbery on their plane at Landvetter airport, near Gothenburg.

The thieves fled with a "large sum" of cash in foreign currency from the hold. Police evacuated parts of the airport after the gang left a bag, believed to be a bomb, on the runway.

Passengers on Scandinavian Airlines' 9.35am SK524 flight from London Heathrow were ready to disembark after two hours in the air when two cars, a Volvo and a Jeep, smashed through locked gates at the airport.

Stunned witnesses watched from the windows of the jet as at least five hooded robbers, several carrying machine-guns, ran towards them.

Outside the plane, the gunmen confronted luggage handlers unloading crates full of foreign currency from the hold into a Securitas van.

"They took lots of money, but the exact amount we do not know," a police spokesman said. "It was foreign currency. A large amount of money."

The robbers spread nails on a road near the airport in an attempt to thwart chasing officers. Their cars were found burned out several kilometres from the airport.

Airport security manager Dan Larsson told a newspaper he suspected an inside job, saying the gang must have known that cash was being transported on that flight and other airport security procedures.

- INDEPENDENT