Hackers who penetrated the systems of Barclays Bank and withdrew millions from three ATMs in Nairobi had information on the bank’s ongoing systems upgrade, police have said.

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The theft happened on Saturday and up to Sh11 million were withdrawn from the ATMs and the thugs involved vanished in thin air.

An investigator who talked to the Standard said preliminary investigations point to an inside job.“This points to an inside job.

There is no way an outsider could have known what was going on to attack the ATMs. But we will soon get them,” the officer said.

The officer added that so far, no arrests have been made.

Nairobi police boss Philip Ndolo told the paper that detectives from the Cybercrime Unit at Directorate of Criminal Investigations had swung into action.

Already police have detained five employees from the bank and G4S security group over the robbery.

Affected ATMs are at Mutindwa, Buruburu, Kenyatta National Hospital and at The Mater Hospital in South B.

The robbers applied guerilla-like tactics such as smearing CCTV cameras with dirt before withdrawing millions from the cash dispensers.

The bank, however, assured its customers that the incident had in no way affected their accounts or services.