Guns stolen from Spanish army base

Madrid, March 1 (IANS/EFE) Rifles and handguns have been stolen from an army base in Spain’s southwestern city of Badajoz, military officials said.

The robbery took place after midnight Sunday at the General Menacho Base arsenal. The sounding of an alarm brought security personnel rushing to the scene, where they discovered that weapons were missing. No one was, however, found inside the facility.

Officials said the evidence indicates organised-crime groups were behind the robbery.

The same base had earlier seen the attempted stealing of an automatic teller machine (ATM) from the bank branch located on the premises. The robbers tried to use a military armed transport vehicle to drag it away.

But they were surprised by soldiers on guard duty and ran off.

The General Menacho Base is the headquarters of the 11th Mechanised Infantry Brigade.

–IANS/EFE