Jan 26, Colombo: The Police have found a van in the Peradeniya area suspected to be involved a robbery of an ATM machine of a private bank in Gampola town.

The Police say, four masked men stole an ATM with a large amount of money from a Gampola private bank early Wednesday morning.

According to the police, around 12.40 am Wednesday, an armed gang came in a van, tied up the security officer of the bank and stole the ATM machine with over Rs. 7.6 million cash in the machine

Police Media Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police Nihal Thalduwa said that 05 police teams have been deployed to arrest the group.

The driver of the van in which the robbers arrived has been arrested by the police and the police say that he is an ex-Air Force soldier.

A senior police officer said that the police had received many investigative evidences that he was involved in this robbery and he was arrested because of that. The officer said that this driver is a resident of Aranayake.

It has been observed in the security camera footage that this group of four people who came from a van entered the location of the ATM machine of the bank, tied up the bank security guard and stole the ATM machine along with the money within just 05 minutes.

The police say that the robbers have come with their faces covered so that they could not be recognized. However, a senior police officer said that it was possible to uncover a lot of information about the robbers from the clothes they were wearing, behavior etc. and the driver of the van was arrested through that.

The suspects have not been identified yet and the Gampola Police have started investigations to arrest the suspects.