There was quite a commotion in Paris last Thursday. Around 2 pm, at the Société Générale bank branch at 91 rue de la Glacière, in the 13th arrondissement, violence interrupted a peaceful summer afternoon.

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As an armored car came to the bank to deliver funds to an ATM machine, a Jeep Cherokee 4×4 surged and rammed the armored car.

Two masked bandits then arrived on the scene on scooters. They removed special ATM cartridges, each with €30,000, from the armored car, and took off. The Cherokee driver managed to pull some €40,000 from the ATM machine itself.

The three robbers fled a few blocks, where a Mercedes getaway car was waiting. They remain at large.

No one died in the robbery. The armored car driver suffered minor injuries, but no one was seriously hurt.

Eruptions of violence are thankfully rare in central Paris. Perhaps to maintain the image or the illusion of a safe capital city, the robbery was un- or under-reported.