Gunmen broke into Albania’s international airport on Tuesday, swiped bags of cash from a bank van and sped off – triggering a police chase and shootout in which one of the robbers was killed, according to reports.

The brazen bandits smashed through an entrance used by firefighters to get access to the tarmac at the Mother Teresa Rinasi International Airport north of the capital Tirana.

They swooped in on the van, which was carrying the money that was about to be loaded onto a plane, Balkan Insight reported.

Witnesses on the Vienna-bound plane targeted by the thieves told reporters the engines were running when masked men wearing military fatigues threatened ground workers with guns and ordered them on the ground.

“The perpetrators exchanged fire with the police during the chase in a secondary road and one of them lost his life in that exchange,” a police statement said.

The dead man was found with an assault weapon and a grenade.

Police aided by a chopper were giving chase to at least three of his accomplices still on the loose.

The amount of money stolen was unclear. Initial reports mentioned a sum of 2 million euros – about $2.25 million – but later suggested that it could be five times higher.

Albania-based foreign banks ship out hard currency through Rinasi Airport to Austria’s capital because the central bank does not accept their deposits of hard currency.

Shipments have been attacked before, once at the airport and twice on the road leading to it. Police retrieved some of the cash from the last robbery after finding it stashed underground in pressure cookers.

In February 2017, thieves made off with 3.2 million euros in a similar heist, while in June 2016, another 995,000 euros was stolen. There were two more robberies in 2015.

With Post Wires