‘Elderly woman’ robbed bank with toy gun

Witnesses told police that the “masked bandit” waved the gun and a knife at staff of the bank in Prato, a city outside Florence, before sauntering off by foot with her €4,000 loot, Blitz Quotidiano reported.

Witnesses deduced she was an “elderly woman”, police said, and possibly in her seventies.

The incident happened at a branch of Cassa di risparmio di Lucca-Pisa-Livorno.

In another incident on Monday, a bank robber died of a suspected heart attack after trying to hold up a branch of Banca Popolare di Puglia e Basilicata in the southern Italian city of Bari.

Luigi Abatantuono, a 37-year-old father of three, who police said had a “history of bank robberies”, died after an altercation with a security guard and member of staff, Blitz Quotidiano reported.

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