A futile attempt was made to loot a private bank at Annur near here in the early hours of Friday, police said.
A police patrol on the morning rounds heard an alarm going off from the bank and noticed the window grill of the building broken open.
The patrol alerted senior police officials and the bank manager who rushed to the spot, the police said.
The robbers entered the bank through the window but failed to break open the locker.
They fled when the alarm went off, they said.
The locker contained Rs four crore worth of pledged gold jewels and Rs 10 lakh in cash, the police quoting the bank officials said.
Police are going through footage of CCTV kept in many places in the vicinity to identify the culprits.
One footage showed a bulb in the front of the bank was lit at around 3.15 AM, indicating that the robbers tried to break in at that time, the police said.
Police recovered a 20-metre-long electric wire suspected to be brought to use to cut open the locker, they said.
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