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In August 2005, a gang of theives tunnelled their way into a Brazilian bank vault in a heist straight out of the movies.Three months before, the thieves had set up a landscaping business, Grama Sintetica - or Synthetic Grass, from a house close to the Banco Central in Fortaleza. But it was a plot to disguise their real activity.Working in shifts, they dug an 80 metre tunnel from the house, under a neighbouring street and into the vault before escaping with more than 160million reais, then the equivalent of $70m.Antonio Celso Dos Santos, then a federal police chief, was one of the detectives who tracked down the gang. He spoke to Jane Wilkinson about the investigation.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher.You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.(Photo: Police and journalists examine the Banco Central tunnel, 2005. Credit: AP Photo/Tuno de Vieira, Diario do Nordeste)

On 15 August 1950, an 8.6 magnitude earthquake shook the Himalaya mountains – wiping out whole villages in Tibet and north-east India.The death toll was estimated to be about 4,800.The late British botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward was camping in Tibet with his wife Jean when the ground beneath them began to sag.“I felt as though we were lying on a pie crust against whicha steam hammer was drumming,” he said.“In another minute it must crack, crumple, and drop us into the shuddering interior of the earth. “I can't convey to you our terror, bewilderment, sense of utter helplessness.”The pair had been planning to go seed hunting in the mountains. Instead, they were stranded with limited rations.In an interview he gave to the BBC in 1951, Frank Kingdon-Ward describes the destruction the quake caused and their perilous journey to safety. This programme is made in collaboration with BBC Archives. It's produced and presented by Vicky Farncombe. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.(Photo: A bridge damaged by the 1950 earthquake in Assam, India. Credit: Getty Images)

Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. But in 1936, Joseph Stalin attended a performance of Shostakovich's opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. The Soviet leader was unimpressed and left early. Days later, the state newspaper Pravda published a scathing review titled 'Muddle instead of music', castigating the music as bourgeois. Shostakovich was blacklisted from public life, and feared for his safety during Stalin's ongoing purges. The traditional style of his comeback Symphony No 5 in 1937 was a hit with the authorities, and Shostakovich's reputation was restored. But his true intentions are hugely debated – some experts argue the Fifth Symphony was a cleverly veiled act of dissent. Fifty years on from the composer's death, his son Maxim Shostakovich unfolds the mystery with Ben Henderson.Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.(Photo: Dmitri Shostakovich and his son Maxim Shostakovich. Credit: Express/Getty Images)