KERMANSHAH — It looks like a bank heist that took a very bad turn.

Police of the Kermanshah province in western Iran suspect that a unidentified man's body found in a bank ventilation shaft belonged to a would-be thief who suffocated there overnight.

Employees of a branch of the Bank Saderat (the Exports Bank) called police after detecting a "rotting smell" in the premises, head of police Karim Keshvari told reporters Tuesday. Firefighters and police arrived to "extract the corpse from the AC shaft," the official IRNA agency reported.

"This young man, about 25 years old, had entered the shaft from the roof and could not then get out ... most probably the young man's motive was to rob the bank," Keshvari said.

— Ahmad Shayegan