In a dramatic heist straight out of a movie script, two armed robbers raided a bank in Sydney yesterday, taking hostages before escaping empty-handed through a hole in the wall. The pair managed to flee despite the presence of 70 armed police officers and a police helicopter hovering over the bank, on the north side of Sydney Harbour. Police said the two bandits managed to escape through a 'rabbit warren' of rooms into an adjoining unoccupied building. The drama began at around 9.15am when a female employee arrived at the St George Bank in Neutral Bay and found a security door open. Her suspicions aroused, she started to walk out of the bank but one of the robbers suddenly appeared and attempted to drag her back inside. After a struggle she managed to run away. Customers waiting for the bank to open tried to tackle the man but backed off when he waved a gun. Armed police from the Special Protection Group arrived shortly afterwards, surrounding the bank and appealing on loudspeaker for the robbers to give themselves up. Police stormed the bank at around 11.30am, freeing two other employees but finding the robbers had disappeared. Superintendent John Sweeney told Sky News the bandits escaped during the siege through a hole they had made in an external wall. Locals said they had heard the sound of drilling coming from the bank during the night. 'The resident that lives above me actually came in to my shop and said 'Was anyone in the shop last night?' because he heard a drill hammer or something going on,' said a witness to the siege. A bank customer told local radio that he and other customers stumbled across the robbery and saw the robber attempt to take the female employee hostage. 'Next thing we saw her running out and a guy who had a mask and everything on grabbed hold of her and was trying to drag her back in. 'A gentleman in front of me, he raced in and grabbed the guy and I went in and helped him and the next thing the guy came back and said 'I've got a gun, get out of here'. I'm no hero, [so] we did.' Police blocked the road in front of the bank, a crucial route for commuters heading across the Harbour Bridge into Sydney, causing a traffic jam several kilometres long.