RAIDERS who got away with £100,000 from a Burnley bank may have deliberately set fire to a dentist's surgery next door so they could secretly tunnel into the building.

The hole-in-the-wall robbers got into Barclays Bank from the wrecked surgery in Colne Road, Burnley, which had been set on fire two weeks earlier.

They were waiting when two middle age woman arrived to open the bank shortly after 9am yesterday. The terrified women were tied up as the men cleared the vault of the money in white and blue bags. Barclays are offered a reward of up to £15,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the robbers. Detective Sergeant Tony Ronan said: "We cannot rule out that the arson attack on the dentist's early in the morning of Monday, November 22, was done for the purpose of later gaining entry to the bank."

Residents in flats above some of the shops heard heavy banging between 3am and 4am yesterday, apparently as the robbers were smashing a wall through the substantial wall between the properties.

The raiders then waited for the bank staff to arrive.

The robbery took only a few minutes before the robbers left by the way they had got in. The frightened women managed to reach the alarm button and were still tied by the wrists when police arrived minutes later. Their wrists were bruised by the force used to tie them and both were deeply shocked by their ordeal.

They told police that they heard a vehicle at the back of the premises just after the robbers left.

Mr Ronan said: "Planning has probably taken place over a period of weeks when the offenders will have been in the area, perhaps at opening time in the morning and maybe as customers."

Extensive inquiries are taking place and forensic examination is being carried out at both premises.

One of the men spoke with a soft Merseyside accent. The other did not speak.

Both were wearing dark balaclava masks and dark clothing.

Police are appealing for witnesses and for anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area not only yesterday but in the last two or three weeks to contact Burnley CID on 01282 425001 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

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