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olice say that investigators will look for terrorist links to the robber who left a “professionally” built booby-trapped bomb as he fled from a Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) branch in Yogyakarta.

The explosive was “well-assembled”, indicating that it might have been built by a trained individual, Sr. Comr. Gatot Sudibjo, the commander of the Yogyakarta Police’s Mobile Brigade special operations unit, said on Monday.

“We confirm that it is a low-explosive bomb that might have injured or even killed people. From the way it was made, we are definitely sure it was the work of a professional,” Gatot said as quoted by Antara news agency.

“When the Gegana [bomb squad] scanned the bomb with an X-ray machine, we saw a digital timer with a string of cables. We could not defuse the bomb, as it contained a kind of booby trap,” he said.

The bomb squad detonated the device inside an explosive-proof tank, Antara reported.

Gatot said that the police were still investigating whether a terrorist network was behind the robbery, which occurred just after the BRI branch inside the Sardjito Hospital compound in Sleman regency opened at around 7 a.m. on Monday.

The robber rushed into the bank shortly after the branch manager, Sukamti, opened the doors.

The man threatened to detonate the bomb unless Sukamti handed over a bag of cash that was later revealed to have contained around Rp 155 million (US$16,400), according to the police.

“Based on the CCTV footage, the suspect was seen as a tall male, operating alone. He wore scarf to hide his face,” Sleman Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Hery Sutrisman said.

“The suspect threatened her [Sukamti] that he would blow up the bank unless she turned over the money,” he said.

Although bank robbers armed with bombs were a new threat, according to Hery, such robberies could not be dismissed as ordinary heists as there have been several recent cases where terrorist networks have robbed local banks to fund their operations.

The largest bank robbery connected to terrorists was in Medan, North Sumatra, in August 2010, when one police officer was shot dead and two security guards injured when robbers made off with Rp 500 million from a local CIMB Niaga Bank branch.

The attack was carried out by an armed group led by Taufik Hidayat at the direction of Abu Tholut, a convicted terrorist and former member of the Al-Qaeda linked Jamaah Islamiyah group.

Taufik was later shot and killed by a joint police-military team in an ambush in Dolok Masihul, North Sumatra and more than a dozen others have been sentenced to prison in the case.

Fadli Sadama bin Mahmudin, a drug convict who received radical teachings while in prison was among the noted figure in the heist.

He received a sentence of 11 years’ imprisonment after he was found guilty of supplying weapons to the terrorist group that robbed the CIMB Niaga Bank and later attacked a police station in Deli Serdang.

Fadli’s role as an arms supplier to the group emerged after he was arrested in Malaysia in 2010 with two rifles.