JEDDAH, 26 March 2003 — Police arrested four people — three Saudis and an Asian — on Monday for robbing SR190,000 from a Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) branch in Bawadi district, in the north of the city.

Maj. Gen. Saeed Al-Qahtani, director of police in the Makkah region, confirmed the arrest of the four robbers who broke into the bank on King Fahd Street on Sunday.

The police chief said the same gang robbed Al-Rajhi Bank in Jeddah on March 6.

The four robbed the BSF branch at gunpoint after threatening to kill its employees including the security guard. They fled in a car after leaving the bank through the back door.

The robbers, aged between 20 and 30, were unemployed and were previously involved in several crimes.

The four acknowledged that they had committed several crimes before robbing another bank.

According to security sources, the robbers were held within 24 hours of the incident. Gen. Qahtani and Jeddah Police Chief Brig. Saleh Al-Olayan supervised the massive hunt for the criminals.

After entering the bank on Sunday morning, the four urged the bank employees to lie on the ground. They then moved to the cashier’s room and grabbed the money there.

Qahtani said the thieves entered the bank shortly after it was opened in the morning.

“They frightened the bank employees by firing shots from the guns they were carrying,” he said in a statement.

They scooped up SR190,000 before fleeing the scene.

Soon after the incident, police combed the city to track down the culprits. “Within two hours we found the car they were using and located its owner, who in the beginning tried to mislead the investigators,” Qahtani said.

The police chief said the stolen money was found in the house of a relative of one of the four suspects. Initial investigation proved that the four committed the bank robbery, he added.