Thieves stole £7MILLION from an armoured truck as it drove out of Heathrow Airport

COPS are hunting thieves who looted £7million in cash from a security van in one of the biggest raids in British criminal history.

The armour-plated Loomis International vehicle had picked up half a ton of banknotes from Heathrow Terminal 4 on behalf of Credit Suisse bank.

The van was found abandoned in a suburban street half a mile from the airport but the crooks had already fled.

Two Loomis employees have since been arrested and charged over the heist.

Flying Squad detectives are searching for other people thought to be involved.

The money was picked up from Heathrow last Tuesday morning and was due to be delivered to a Loomis depot in Shepperton, Surrey.

Residents in West View, a quiet street of semi-detached houses in Feltham, said police swarmed around the large grey van at 8.30am.

One : "The van was parked there with the engine running.

"Police were banging on the back doors and shouting, 'Come out, we’ve got you surrounded, you can’t go anywhere'.

"But it turned out there was no one inside. Another Loomis truck then came and a guy got out with a key. He opened up the back of the truck and it was empty.

"Police sealed off the street all day. They were doing forensic tests."

Loomis International workers Mohammed Siddique, 31, and Ranjeev Singh, 40, both from Slough, Berks, were charged two days after the raid with conspiracy to steal.

They were remanded in custody by JPs in Wimbledon who sent the case to Kingston crown court.

In December another Loomis van was targeted by a masked gang armed with a shotgun who made off with hundreds of thousands being delivered to an Asda in Witham, Essex.

Britain’s biggest cash robbery was the Securitas depot heist in February 2006 when armed crooks stole more than £53million in Tonbridge, Kent.

In 2004, the IRA was said to have been behind the £26.4million raid on the Northern Bank headquarters in Belfast.

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