Moments of terror last night at the Valecenter shopping center in Marcon (Venice) where a commando of 5-6 bandits, with their faces covered by balaclavas and armed with Kalashnikovs, broke into a jewelery shop in the hypermarket, forcing a general stampede among the clients.

At that moment, around 7pm, the center was crowded with people, many were families with their children. “They yelled at us that there was a robbery in progress and to run away,” said a witness.

Inside the "Gioielli di Valenza" shop there were two sales assistants who remained petrified: one of them was taken hostage by one of the commandos who remained outside, in the corridor, while the others forced the other employee to empty the display cases and they put valuables and jewels inside some bags. Then the most dramatic moment: to protect their escape, the bandits tried to drag the shop assistant hostage with them. The girl tried to resist in every way, cried and begged the criminals to let her go. The gang thus took the other employee hostage and drove away with her towards the exit, where an accomplice was waiting for them in a red Fiat Panda.

Having loaded the bags into the car, the robbers then left the girl free. A great scare for the two young shop assistants, but no physical consequences. Once the alarm was raised, the Carabinieri arrived at the Valecenter and as a first operation, with weapons in hand, they combed through all the shops in the hypermarket to ensure that no criminals were still inside.

Searches and checkpoints began immediately afterwards, but so far they have yielded no results. The red panda was found abandoned nearby. The gang evidently changed cars to continue their escape. The amount of the loot has not yet been ascertained.

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