(CNN Spanish) — An airport security official died this Wednesday morning during a confrontation with a group of people who were trying to steal a valuables truck inside the Arturo Merino Benítez Airport in Santiago de Chile, reported the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC) through a statement posted on Twitter.
The agency regretted the death of the official, who was identified as Claudio Alejandro Villar Rodríguez, and added that they will work with the competent authorities to clarify the fact.
During an act for International Women’s Day, the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, spoke about the incident at the Santiago airport and confirmed that “a criminal was also killed.”
“An assault on the airport slab where the criminals shot down a DGAC official and where a criminal was also killed as a result of the confrontation (…) when there is insecurity all the rest staggers. Today these two assaults are they were able to frustrate but at a very high cost. They have often been women, from our government we are going to tirelessly pursue crime with justice,” said Boric.
Eduardo Baeza, chief prosecutor of the Pudahuel commune, commented this Wednesday that the attempted robbery occurred around 7:50 am (local time) and that there were 10 subjects, who went to the place in three or four trucks, who They carried out the assault attempt.
An agent of the Investigative Police inspects the vehicles burned by some individuals in the surroundings of the Arturo Merino Benítez international airport in Santiago after the attempted robbery of more than 32 million dollars from an armored van that had just collected the money from a plane of Latam Airline from Miami. (Photo by Karin POZO/AFP) (Photo by KARIN POZO/AFP via Getty Images)
The armored truck that was attempted to be robbed had around US$32 million coming from Miami to various banks in Chile.
So far the investigation is ongoing to define all the details of the incident.
Meanwhile, the director of the DGAC, Raúl Jorquera, reported this Wednesday that the criminals were going with “high fire capacity” and “planning”, but that the training and arming of the elements of the leadership helped to thwart the robbery.
“Some criminals who went with absolute commitment, planning, with a high fire capacity to try to rob the transport of securities that was scheduled for that day. The DGAC, as a result of the experience it has had in this area, has reinforced its mechanisms security, has provided our personnel with training equipment. This is how today our people were able to repel this attempted robbery, it is a frustrated robbery, unfortunately with the death of one of our officials,” he said.
For her part, the Chilean Defense Minister, Maya Fernández, indicated that the training and armament of the security forces had been improved, which made it possible to repel the assault; however, she said that a weapon attack should not occur inside an airport as in this case.
“Not only security has been strengthened in formation, (but) also in this case in terms of weapons, which made it possible to repel the fact of what was going to happen and that generates a change (…). But what should never happen is that the airport is obviously assaulted with weapons”, he commented.