IRA denies involvement in Northern Ireland bank heist

BELFAST - The Irish Republican Army (IRA) denied on Thursday that it was behind a record £22 million ($55 million) bank heist in Belfast earlier this week.

"We are dismissing any suggestion or allegation that we were involved," a senior republican source said.

Earlier Ian Paisley Junior, the son of the hardline leader of the province's main Protestant party, said the robbery, which took place in Belfast late on Monday, displayed all the hallmarks of the IRA.

A police spokeswoman repeated on Thursday that paramilitary involvement had not been ruled out, given the scale of the crime, but added that no group on either side of the sectarian divide was currently being blamed.

Paramilitary groups from the province's Protestant and Roman Catholic communities, which are observing a ceasefire in their long-running sectarian conflict, are still regularly involved in major crimes, according to independent monitors.

A police spokesman later said they had been just minutes away from grabbing the thieves after a traffic warden warned of something odd going on at the bank.

The thieves fled with their loot in a white van which had been caught on closed circuit television. Police were studying the pictures, but the van has not yet been recovered.

Police said on Wednesday that tracking down the gang behind the theft would be tough, given the professional nature of the crime.

The theft, one of the biggest in British history, took place at the headquarters of Northern Bank after families of bank employees were taken hostage the previous evening.

One key witness had been kept blindfolded for at least 23 hours before being dumped in an isolated area where police later found her burnt car.

"There is clear evidence that the individuals who took over the houses were forensically aware and that they took precautions not to leave any trace, so that makes it more difficult for us," Detective Superintendent Andy Sproule told a news conference in Belfast.

National Australia Bank, which owns Northern Bank and is in the process of selling it to Denmark's Danske Bank, said late on Tuesday that it would have to foot the bill for losses arising from the theft.

- REUTERS