Chennai: The gang that looted an ICICI Bank ATM near Somangalam and took away nearly ₹10 lakh in the early hours of Tuesday made a dramatic escape in Telangana on Tuesday night. They brandished a handgun at police personnel after being intercepted at a toll plaza. The suspects later abandoned the vehicle in a forest area and fled, police said.A special team from Tambaram city police recovered the black car and collected registration plates and other evidence from the vehicle. Police suspect four members of the gang may have switched vehicles and headed towards Mumbai. Additional teams have been deployed to track them down.The ATM heist took place in the early hours of Tuesday at Pudupedu village near Somangalam on the Sriperumbudur-Kundrathur Road in Kancheepuram district. The gang arrived in a car, used a welding machine to cut open the ATM and escaped with nearly ₹10 lakh.Tambaram police registered a case and formed three special teams and are probing whether the suspects are part of an interstate gang. The original registration plates of the black car had been replaced with plates taken from another vehicle parked near the crime scene, police said.On Tuesday, when police personnel stopped the car at a toll plaza in Telangana and attempted to search the vehicle, the occupants brandished a handgun, threatened them and sped away.A team chased the car for a considerable distance before losing sight of it. The vehicle was subsequently found abandoned in a forest area, while the suspects had disappeared. Police suspect the recovered car could also be a stolen vehicle and are examining whether the gang used another vehicle to continue its journey towards Maharashtra.Additional teams have joined the search, and police say they are closing in on the suspects.
