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Would-be robbers dug a tunnel half a kilometre long in an attempt to steal £250 million from a bank branch in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Brazilian police foiled the daring plot, but not before the gang spent nearly £1 million and about four months on the underground passage complete with lighting, ventilation and railway tracks.
The tunnel dug by the 20-strong gang ran from a rented home to a branch of government-owned Banco do Brazil, according to investigators.
The Sao Paulo state Public Safety Department said in a statement that agents had been monitoring the gang for three months but only discovered the tunnel on Monday.
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By then the tunnel was complete. But police arrested 16 suspects before they could pull off the heist.
They allegedly told officers they had hoped to steal the equivalent of £250 million.
Investigator Fabio Pinheiro Lopes told the Guardian that, had it been successful, the robbery would have been "the biggest bank robbery in the world".
Twelve years ago a different gang tunnelled into a bank vault in Fortaleza and made off with £54 million in Brazilian reals.