A 45-year-old man was shot at by a robber after he held on to him while the criminal and five other gang members were trying to flee after looting gold ornaments from the branch of a non-banking financial company in Burdwan town on Friday afternoon.

Hiraman Mondal received bullet injuries to the back and is undergoing treatment at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, where doctors said he was stable. He was the guard at the NBFC that deals in gold loans and had left the job six months ago.

Police are going through the footage captured by CCTVs at the NBFC’s and in the vicinity to identify the criminals. The incident took place less than 100m from the police station on B.C. Road.

Local people could not recall a similar incident in the heart of the town in the past 40 years. That such a daring crime took place on a relatively narrow and busy thoroughfare around 1.15pm shocked the residents.

“We have already started a probe to arrest the gang involved in the robbery. We have been informed that the gang had come on motorbikes,” said Bhaskar Mukherjee, the East Burdwan police superintendent.

Sources said six robbers had entered the branch of the NBFC and held the private security guard at gunpoint. Later, they snatched keys of the vault and stole a few kilograms of gold ornaments and fled.

Mondal, a resident of Kalipukur village of Jaugram who now lives in the town and drives an e-rickshaw, had come to repay an instalment when the raid took place. He caught hold of one of the robbers and was helped by local shopowners. But the robber was let off after he opened fire.

“Mondal was first hit on the head by the butt of a revolver. Even then he did not release the robber from his clutch. The criminal then shot at him. As a bullet hit his upper waist, the robber managed to escape from Mondal’s grip and fled with others on motorbikes,” said a police source.

Police sources said though the NBFC did not submitdetails of their ornaments looted till Friday evening, it was estimated to be a few kilograms.

After the incident happened, senior police officers, including Mukherjee, reached the spot and started a thorough probe. The employees of the NBFC said there were around six members in the gang that had carried out the heist. The gang members were conversing in Hindi.