The police stormed a Stockholm bank after a robber locked himself in together with both customers and bank staff.

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A lone robber locked himself in a branch of Handelsbanken on Östermalm, a central part of the Swedish capital, together with both customers and bank staff, midday Friday. The alarm call was received at 11.31am. The police stormed the bank 2.10pm and the perpetrator was arrested.

"Two teams stormed the bank, using smoke and flash grenades", an eyewitness told The Swedish Wire. "All the streets were closed off and there were armed police officers everywhere".

The police were quickly on the spot and surrounded the premises. A large police force was on the location, armed with automatic weapons. A hostage negotiators was also present at the scene to try to talk to the man.

The man was not reported to be carrying a firearm. According to the Stockholm police, no one is reported to be hurt.

“He has been loud and intimidating. But what we know, no one has yet been injured”, police spokesman Ulf Lindgren told the Dagens Nyheter website. "He was equipped with some kind of weapon".

The event brings back memories of the 1973 Norrmalmstorg robbery in Stockholm, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, giving name to the paradoxical psychological phenomenon called "The Stockholm Syndrome".

Last year six men have been arrested over a dramatic helicopter raid on a Swedish cash storage depot, in which millions of dollars were reportedly stolen.