BAGHDAD (AFP) – Eight police guards were killed in an overnight bank robbery in a central Baghdad shopping district, police said on Tuesday.

An unknown number of gunmen raided state-owned Al-Rafidain bank’s branch in Karrada after midnight (2100 GMT), a police officer said asking not to be identified.

They managed to open the bank’s safe and stole all the money inside, killing eight police guards in the process.

The bodies of five of the guards were found in one room of the bank early on Tuesday. The bodies of the other three were found in a second room.

The heist follows a failed robbery at a Baghdad currency exchange shop on Sunday in which four security guards were killed and four other people wounded.