OSAKA -- A gunman snatched 5 million yen in cash Friday morning from a vehicle parked outside a Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. branch in Osaka, shooting and wounding a guard in the leg, police said.
The man, armed with a revolver and believed to be between 40 and 50 years old, fled in a minivehicle after the 10:25 a.m. robbery. The injuries to the guard, Kyosuke Yamamoto, 53, are not life-threatening, police said.
The man attacked the cash vehicle shortly after it arrived at the rear entrance of the branch, they said. The suspect was about 160 cm tall and wore a black knit cap and blue work jacket and pants, police said. He wore sunglasses and a white mask at the time of the robbery.
The man got into the car, parked on a street about 20 meters from the bank, and drove away calmly, police quoted a witness as saying.
The bullet fired by the suspect penetrated Yamamoto's left leg. The cash vehicle, operated by Nippon Express Co., visits the bank a few times a month.
The bank is located on the first floor of an apartment complex about 800 meters northeast of Miyakojima station on the Tanimachi subway line.
In Osaka Prefecture, 50 million yen was robbed from another cash vehicle at a bank in Kishiwada only a week ago.