Brazilian police have thwarted the country's biggest attempted bank robbery. A gang of 16 people allegedly dug a sophisticated 600-meter tunnel equipped with lights.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMA Wire/P. Lopes
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Bank robbery tunnel thwarted by police
Motivated criminals in Brazil dug an enormous tunnel in an attempt to grab hundreds of millions of dollars from a bank.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMA Wire/P. Lopes
600 meters of digging
A criminal gang dug a 600-meter (2000-foot) tunnel in an attempt to rob 1 billion reais ($318 million, €270 million) from a bank. They were thwarted by police shortly before completing the heist.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMA Wire/P. Lopes
Rental home
The tunnel entrance was in a nook in a rental house. The 16 participants pooled their money to pay for the tunnel, reaching about $1.27 million, police alleged.
Image: Reuters/P. Whitaker
The descent
The tunnel was accessed through a 2 meter-deep ladder. The tunnel itself was about 1.5 meters high, was reinforced with iron beams and wood and lined with plastic, and was even wired with lights.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMA Wire/P. Lopes
Fully stocked
The rental house was filled with food, water, special clothing and digging tools. The gang had spent four months digging the tunnel.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMA Wire/P. Lopes
Failed heist
Police arrested the gang members and a court ruled they should be held ahead of their trial.
Image: picture-alliance/ZUMA Wire/P. Lopes
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Brazilian police this week foiled a criminal plot to rob a bank of 1 billion reais ($318 million, 270 million euros) using an enormous secret tunnel.
A team of 16 prospective bank robbers had dug a tunnel nearly 600-meters (2000 feet) long, running from a nearby rental house to a Sao Paulo branch of government-owned Banco do Brazil.
The Sao Paulo state Public Safety Department said on Tuesday the gang had been under surveillance for three months before the tunnel was discovered. The gang allegedly spent about $1.27 million building the tunnel, with the cost split among its participants.
Work on the tunnel began four months ago and the project was impressively equipped.
Police allege the leader of the gang was a 35-year-old woman implicated in an attempted robbery of a security van in Paraguay. The court ruled the group be held in pre-trial detention.
The group dug the tunnel by hand, loading the soil into sacks and carrying it through a fork in the tunnel to an underground storm water drain, El Globo reported.
To enter the tunnel, gang members descended a two meter ladder from one of the rooms in the rented house. The tunnel was about 1.5 meters high and was reinforced with iron beams and wood, and was even wired with lights.
The walls were lined with plastic garbage bags to reduce the dust, the national daily reported.
The house was reportedly filled with food, water, special clothing and digging tools.
Police were probing whether the gang had the assistance of a engineer when building the tunnel, local daily Agora reported.
The tunnel renewed memories of a tunnel robbery 12 years ago when thieves made off with about $70 million.
On that tunnel, diggers worked in shifts from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m., taking a break on weekends, Estadao reported in 2015. Three gang members involved in that attempt were involved in two separate prison escapes using tunnels equipped with ventilation and lighting.
aw/rc (AP, AFP)
New Swiss tunnel is the world's longest
Switzerland has unveiled a new railway tunnel that cuts through 57 kilometers of the Swiss Alps. A technological tour de force, the Gotthard Base Tunnel connects the scenic villages of Erstfeld and Bodio.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Settnik
Moving mountains
After 17 years of construction, the Gotthard Base Tunnel is finally ready for operation. Some 28 million tons of rock were carved out of the Swiss Alps by massive boring machines, and the leftover debris was then used to make concrete and form the smooth tunnel walls. Inaugural train rides are planned for June 1, but normal operations won't commence until another 3,000 test drives are completed.
Image: picture-alliance/Keystone/M. Ruetschi
A plane for trains
A key advantage of the new Gotthard tunnel is the flat surface of its tracks, making it easier for heavier trains to travel between Erstfeld and Bodio with fewer engines - and do so at higher speeds. This will make it possible for 260 freight trains to pass through the tunnel in a day, compared to the 180 that made their way through the old Gotthard tunnel.
Image: picture alliance/KEYSTONE
A job machine
In all, 2,600 people came together to work on the Gotthard Base Tunnel project, including engineers, geologists and contractors. Together, they chalked up 4 million man-hours. The Swiss, true to their reputation for precision and punctuality, finished the project a year ahead of schedule and only marginally overbudget.
Image: AlpTransit Gotthard AG
Move over, Japan!
With the Gotthard tunnel's completion, Switzerland dethrones Japan as having the world's longest underground railroad passage. Opened in 1988, the Seikan tunnel was commissioned after a devastating typhoon sank five ferry boats. Eager for a safer way to cross the Tsugaru Strait, the Japanese carved a 53.9-kilometer tunnel through a major earthquake zone.
Image: Imago/Kyodo News
The Channel Tunnel
An engineering marvel in its own right, the Gotthard tunnel is seven kilometers longer than the Channel Tunnel, which has been recognized as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Also known as the Eurotunnel, this 50.5 kilometer-long link between Great Britain and France also has one of the longest undersea sections in the world (37.9 kilometers).
Image: Getty Images/AFP/D. Charlet
Road to rails
Gotthard's tenure as the longest rail tunnel in the world may be over by 2026. That's when construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel is slated for completion. The Brenner tunnel will stretch 64 kilometers and is aimed at relieving congestion on the popular - and highly trafficked - Brenner Pass (pictured).
Many German engineers worked on the Gotthard Base Tunnel, which finished sooner than expected and with only minor cost overruns. That feat is in stark contrast with some major construction projects in Germany, notably Berlin's new airport, whose opening is already four and a half years behind schedule, due to sloppy project management and a series of major engineering mistakes by contractors.
