Manhunt underway after masked bandits rob Naples bank, escape through sewers

A black sedan with a counterfeit plate, a hole cut through the floor and an escape route into the sewer network turned a daytime bank robbery in Naples into a lesson in urban security failure.

At least three masked bandits struck the Crédit Agricole branch in Piazza Medaglie d’Oro, in the Vomero and Arenella area of southern Italy’s second-largest city, on Thursday, April 16, 2026. They held 25 employees and customers hostage for about two hours before police and firefighters moved in around 1:30 p.m. and freed them without any reported injuries.

Investigators said the gang escaped through the sewers after entering through the floor of the branch, a tactic that has forced Carabinieri, firefighters and technicians from ABC Napoli, the city water company, to inspect underground conduits beneath the bank and along nearby metro-linked sewer lines. Officers later found a generator and other tools in the sewer network, evidence that the robbery had been prepared with more than the speed and violence usually associated with street crime.

The Naples prosecutor’s office is coordinating the case, with prosecutor Nicola Gratteri present at the scene as the hostages came out. Early surveillance footage and witness accounts suggested the operation may have involved two coordinated teams, a detail that has deepened concern that the robbery was executed by a disciplined crew rather than a handful of opportunists. Local descriptions of the masked men, including accounts that they wore disguises resembling movie props or nylon tights, have only sharpened the sense that the raid was staged with unusual theatricality and planning.

The scale of the theft is still being measured. Investigators said the robbers took several dozen safe-deposit boxes, but the total amount stolen has not yet been quantified. Customers have since returned to the branch to check whether valuables kept in the safes were taken.

The case has drawn attention well beyond Naples because it echoes a 2024 robbery in Grumo Nevano, where thieves used a sewer access tunnel, held 19 people hostage and escaped with 160,000 euros plus the contents of safety-deposit boxes. In a country already grappling with organized crime and sophisticated heists, the Naples raid has revived questions about how crews are exploiting underground infrastructure, and how hard it is to police what happens beneath the streets.