ARMED police cordoned off part of the village centres in Kelvedon and Danbury yesterday after two Barclays Bank branches were held up by robbers within an hour.
ARMED police cordoned off part of the village centres in Kelvedon and Danbury yesterday after two Barclays Bank branches were held up by robbers within an hour.
Terrified staff at Kelvedon locked themselves in a back room when they were confronted by a man with a hand gun threatening to shoot just before 3.30pm.
Armed police swooped and sealed off the area as a precaution, but the robber fled empty handed.
Forty minutes later staff at Barclays in Danbury 15 miles away were also confronted by a gunman who threatened to shoot someone in the bank.
He demanded money and escaped with hundreds of pounds.
Eye-witnesses in Kelvedon reported seeing armed police and tracker dogs. A spokeswoman for Essex Police said it was not possible at this stage whether the raids were linked.
The would-be robber in Kelvedon is described as white but with a tanned Mediterranean appearance and clean-shaven. He was about 5ft 10ins tall and wore a blue baseball cap and had a blue jacket.
The Danbury robber is described as white, clean-shaven, about 5ft 10ins tall and in his early 30s. He was wearing a dark green jacket and dark trousers.
Anyone with information about the Kelvedon raid is asked to contact Witham CID on 01376 551312 and those seeing anything at all about the Danbury robbery should call Chelmsford CID on 01245 491212.
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