Thieves stole tens of millions of euros worth of property from safety deposit boxes inside a German bank vault that they drilled during the holiday lull, police said.
Some 2700 bank customers were affected by the theft in Gelsenkirchen, police and the Sparkasse bank said.
Thomas Nowaczyk, a police spokesperson, said investigators believe the theft was worth between 10 and 90 million euros (NZ$20-183 million). German news agency dpa reported that the theft could be one of Germany's largest heists.
The bank remained closed Tuesday (local time), when some 200 people showed up demanding to get inside, dpa reported.
A fire alarm summoned police officers and firefighters to the bank branch shortly before 4am Monday (local time). They found a hole in the wall and the vault was ransacked.
Police believe a large drill was used to break through the vault's basement wall.
Witnesses told investigators they saw several men carrying large bags in a nearby parking garage over the weekend.
Video footage from the garage shows masked people inside a stolen vehicle early Monday (Frankfurt time), police said.
Gelsenkirchen is about 192 kilometres northwest of Frankfurt.
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