Police arrest suspected bank robber dousing himself in gasoline in Ho Chi Minh City

Police in Ho Chi Minh City apprehended a suspect in a robbery at a bank branch in Binh Tan District, who doused himself in gasoline, on Saturday.

TPBank gave official information about the attempted heist late the same day, saying that a man rode a motorbike to its branch on Tran Van Giau Street in Binh Tan District’s Binh Tri Dong Ward.

After parking the motorbike, he walked into the branch at around 9:15 am and threw an empty backpack at a teller, threatening that he had soaked himself in gasoline and forcing the banker to put money into the bag, otherwise he would start a fire.

The staff was calm enough to secretly press an alarm button to notify the bank guards of the threat.

When the suspect was not paying attention, a bank guard tried to control him but the suspect managed to resist and escape. 

After running for 100 meters from the bank branch, the suspect set fire to himself. But the fire was so hot that he took off his shirt.

As local people heard cries for help, they came to help catch the suspect.

Informed of the incident, police in Binh Tan District quickly arrived at the scene to handle the case and take the suspect to their station for further investigation.

At the police station, the suspect was identified as Le Tan Tai, 36, hailing from the Mekong Delta province of An Giang and currently living in southern Long An Province.