And Now For Something Completely Different

This almost sounds like a Monty Python routine. "Oh you want robbery? I'm sorry, that's at the next window.

A bank robber fled empty-handed in Austria after being referred to a different counter.

The clerk he approached tolm his she did not "deal with those types of queries".

But there was a big queue for the next cashier at the Landeskbank-Hypothekenbank in Vienna.

So the man, who was holding a silver box that he claimed was a bomb, fled before repeating his request.

Clerk Maria Bertel said: "He came up to me wearing his scarf wrapped high around his face and said he wanted money. I said I didn't deal with money here and told him to go to the next counter.

"It was only afterwards I realised he was trying to rob the bank. We called the police, but by the time they came he had run off."

Thanks to Ananova.