Scare for French bank

18 November 2015 - 02:41 By Shaun Smillie

For a while employees of French bank Société Générale, in Rosebank, Johannesburg, believed they were under terrorist attack. An e-mail had been sent to staff, said the bank's risk officer, Jeduthun Campbell, warning of a security breach at the 1Sixty building on Jan Smuts Avenue.The staff, already jittery after the Paris attacks on Friday, heard someone trying the fire door to gain access to the office."The [intruders] began hitting the door," said Campbell.Staff kept quiet, said Campbell, until the noise stopped.Campbell said the Johannesburg office had been ordered by headquarters in Paris to plan for the eventuality of an attack.But while the staff of Société Générale prepared for the worst, elsewhere in the office block a police tactical response team, armed with assault rifles and handguns, was moving from room to room looking for armed robbers.A helicopter circled overhead.Later police tried to gain access through the same fire door but bank staff kept them out.Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said five men armed with a rifle held up a man in a lift in the office building at about 3pm and took his laptop computer and iPad phone.The evacuation of the building was not ordered.Some workers remained in their offices, afraid to leave.An hour after the incident the police reholstered their pistols and left. The robbers got away...

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