A plane carrying money had arrived from Miami when 10 robbers entered the airport after tying a security guard.
A foiled multimillion dollar heist at Chile’s largest airport has left two dead and highlighted concerns of rising crime in the Andean nation.
Footage widely shared on social media shows a shootout between robbers and officials from Chile’s DGAC aviation agency below a Latam Airlines plane at the Arturo Merino Benítez international airport in Santiago.
Authorities said one robber and a DGAC airport security official died during the attempted robbery early on Wednesday.
At La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Manuel Monsalve, the deputy interior minister, said about 10 robbers entered the airport in three vehicles after tying up a security guard.
“There was an intense exchange of gunfire,” Monsalve said, noting that security officials “foiled a robbery by a highly organized, highly armed and probably very well-planned robbery”.
The plane, which had arrived from Miami, was carrying $32.5m to be transported locally by security provider Brinks.
Raul Jorquera, general director of the DGAC, told reporters that no passengers were at risk during the encounter, and that the robbers had “high capacity firepower” to steal the money.
Organized crime in Chile has spiked in recent years, including elaborate train heists and a string of raids targeting security vans on or near Santiago airport.
In 2020, a group of armed men stole $14m and €1m (£11.6m) from a Brinks security van at the same airport.
Source: The Guardian
