The band of 12 robbers, aged between 20 and 23 years, arrived at the bank in a white microbus at around 2:00pm, said businessman Shah Alam who witnessed the incident.

They walked up to the bank pretending to be customers. One of them stood guard in front of the stairs on the ground floor.

They snatched a shotgun and a single-barrel breach-loading (SBBL) gun from the guards and confined the 22 officials and 15 clients to a small dining space.

But, as they were herding the officials and clients into the dining space, Branch Manager Anwar Hossain pressed the alarm. The robbers, unaware of the alarm fronting the road, chopped guard Abdur Rahim in the left hand and shoulder with sharp weapons and hit Shahabuddin, the other guard, in the head with a hammer.

Hearing the alarm, several businessmen and locals rushed to the bank. But the gang got down fast and left in the microbus parked in front of the bank.

The gang also broke the glass door of the cash counter. "But no money is missing," one bank official said.

"While the robbers were getting in the microbus, I ran into them at the stairs and one of them took away my gold chain," said Mohammad Hossain, a local businessmen and bank client.

"The gang took away my mobile phone and disconnected all telephone lines," the bank manager said.

During the 10-minute raid, the gang also took away five mobile phones from the officials and customers.

A mobile police team also rushed to the spot on hearing the alarm. The businessmen who took down the number of the microbus gave it to police.

Police later seized the microbus and arrested its driver, Abdur Rab, from in front of the BTTB office in Eskaton, while it was going towards Ramna Police Station. Police also seized the lethal weapons used in the robbery from the microbus.

Police quoting the driver said the gang hired him from Madaripur. "The gang members got down from the microbus at different points of Eskaton," Rab was quoted by police as saying.

Police later found the SBBL gun abandoned in the bank and recovered the shotgun from the guards' changeroom.

Guard Rahim was admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital while Shahabuddin was released after first aid.

"I was in the toilet when I sensed the presence of unwanted people," said Rahim. He saw the gang was beating Shahabuddin, a hired guard of the elite force. Rahim said he was in a position to shoot the robbers from his shotgun but did not dare.

Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, south zone, Khan Sayeed Hasan said the robbers were heading towards the vault after confining the officials and customers but locals foiled the attempt.

Police did not let journalists enter the bank for one and a half hours after the incident.

A case was filed with Ramna Police Station, but none of the robbers could be arrested till last evening.