Sydney guard killed in security van holdup

SYDNEY - A security guard is dead after a bungled armed raid on a cash van in Sydney just a few blocks from the central police station.

About 8am (NZ time) yesterday a Chubb cash van carrying three guards stopped to make a delivery at the premises known as Darling Park in Sussex St, near the intersection of Market St.

A silver Audi pulled up behind the van and four robbers wearing balaclavas - two with handguns - ambushed the guards, shooting one in the chest. He died in hospital.

The 59-year-old victim worked for more than a decade in the security industry. He had not been named last night.

The single shot was fired in the lobby of the building before the bandits fled empty-handed in the Audi.

While no cash was taken, the robbers did snatch a firearm from one of the guards, police said.

"They pointed handguns at the security officers and there was a confrontation and during that confrontation a shot was fired and one of the security officers was injured," Acting Superintendent Greg Antonjuk said.

He said guards had "specific instructions" about how to deal with such incidents.

"The indications are there was some communications during the confrontation, the exact nature of that is still being obtained," Antonjuk said.

New South Wales Police Minister Michael Daley called the attack cowardly and did not believe it was the result of too few guards working in cash vans.

- AAP