A manhunt has been launched to find the three armed robbers who stormed into a branch of National Bank of Greece in Distomo, Viotia on Friday, taking an estimated 300,000 euros and a hostage to aid their escape.

The hostage, a 35-year-old bank teller, was later set free while police are now focusing their search in the triangle between the cities of Xylokastro, Nafplion, and Corinth, in order to locate the hideout of the three robbers. They are trying to decipher the route the perpetrators followed and all possible paths leading to the house where they found refuge and hid the two cars, one white and one red, which they used for their escape.

The genetic material of Yorgos Petrakakos, suspected collaborator of terrorist Nikos Maziotis, the leader of the terrorist group Revolutionary Struggle who was recently arrested and placed into custody, was found by the police in the inflatable dinghy that the National Bank robbers at Distomo used to flee from Boeotia to Corinth.

According to cross-checked information acquired by protothema.gr, the Greek police found Petrakakos’ DNA in the boat that the bank robbers tried unsuccessfully to burn, in order to cover their tracks. This vessel was stolen two years ago at the Kalamata region, the investigations revealed.

It is noteworthy that Yorgos Petrakakos also took part in a bank robbery at the town of Spetses in 2012, performed by terrorist Maziotis group.

In that occasion the perpetrators had also escaped by speedboat, which later they burned in Saladi area in Argolida and they had also taken two hostages from the bank they robbed.

History of he robbery

The robbery took place at 14:00 on Friday when the three men entered the bank shortly before closing time and held the staff at gunpoint. A
ccording to witnesses, they had changed their faces so that they could not be recognised and they escaped in a Toyota RAV4 four-wheel drive car that they later abandoned and set alight at Antikyra.

They then boarded an inflatable dinghy that they used to reach Kato Loutra, Xylokastro where they let the hostage go and made their getaway using unknown means.

The robbers’ threats against the bank director
While the police investigations continue unabated, new evidence comes to light regarding the three unscrupulous bank robbers. As the evidence shows, their every move was carefully planned.

According to the director of the bank, the robbers were very calm and methodical. Her testimony is shocking.

“If you open the safe, we have people outside your house who will kill you and your entire family,” they reportedly said to her.