B'lore ATM attack: Piece of bone found in victim's brain

Bangalore, Nov 20: A woman, brutally

by an armed man at an unguarded

vestibule in Bangalore, was recovering at a hospital after being paralysed on her right side, even as the police intensified their hunt for the assailant whose gory act was caught on CCTV footage.

[Important: If any person founds the attacker, who was seen in the CCTV footage, can immediately inform SJ Park Police station on this number: 080-22942583]

The 38-year-old bank official, who was attacked with a machete, was recovering from a "long surgery" and she was able to speak, Dr NK Venkataramana, who performed the operation, said.

He said her skull was fractured and a small piece of bone had gone into the brain, causing a "penetrating injury" and added that she had been paralysed on her right side.

"We have taken all precautions and are closely monitoring her condition. Hope everything will go well... she is able to speak," the doctor said. There was no danger to her life now, he added.

Police commissioner Raghavendra Auradkar, who visited the victim, said she was recovering and speaking.

He said police officials were being sent to different districts and states to track down the assailant, "who cannot be a first-timer".

Auradkar said police had two rounds of meetings with banks on the issue of security at ATM booths earlier and given strict guidelines to them.

In a gruesome attack at the ATM vestibule near a police station in the heart of the city, the woman was repeatedly hit with the machete by the assailant, leaving her in a pool of blood for nearly three hours before the incident came to light. Schoolchildren saw blood stains and informed a policeman who took the woman to the hospital.

The assailant had attacked her after entering the ATM booth, closely following her and downing the shutter. He repeatedly hit her on the head when she refused to draw money and hand it over to him, police said.

After the attack, caught on CCTV, he had walked out of the kiosk downing the shutter and taking away her mobile phone, leaving the bleeding woman in a serious condition.

PTI