Bank Under Siege: What is the true story behind Netflix’s Spanish drama miniseries?
NETFLIX fans love a true crime drama, and Bank Under Siege will not disappoint.
This Spanish miniseries brings to life one of the biggest attempted heists in the country’s history.
Netflix‘s latest crime thriller is set in Barcelona in May 1981.
The show kicks off three months after the attempted coup d’état at the Congress of Deputies.
The series sees eleven hooded men enter the headquarters of the Central Bank in Barcelona.
What starts as a spectacular robbery soon becomes a real challenge to Spain‘s recent democracy.
The gunmen hold more than 200 terrified hostages in the bank.
They threaten to kill them if the government does not agree to free Colonel Tejero and three others arrested after the attempted coup in February 1981.
Real life crime
The show is based on real life events that took place on May 23, 1981.
At 9.05am on this day, terrorists armed with rifles stormed the Central Bank in Barcelona.
The bank was just filling with customers and employees at the time the gunmen took control.
They fired warning shots to scare people into silence, and shot an employee in a knee to warn off policemen who were trying to approach the bank.
The terrorists demanded that within 72 hours, General Luis Torres Rojas and three lieutenant colonels, Antonio Tejero Molina, Jose Ignacio San Martin and Pedro Mas Oliver be put on a plane in Madrid and flown to Argentina.
These four men were being held in jail accused of being involved in the February 23, 1981, coup attempt,
The gunmen demanded a second plane for them to escape on as well.
Threats to kill hostages
They threatened to kill their hostages, one by one, if their conditions were not met.
They also said they would blow up the bank if it was attacked and were reported to have packed heavy explosives into the building’s windows.
As well as the political aspect of their bank invasion, the gunman also attempted to access the bank’s vault and rob it.
After a 36 hour stand-off, police managed to gain control of the building and nine of the eleven gunmen were arrested – while one escaped, and one was killed.
How to watch Bank Under Siege
Bank Under Siege will drop on Netflix on Friday, November 8, 2024.
Fans will be able to access the miniseries from 8am.
There will be five, one hour episodes to binge at once.
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