Armed robbers pulled off a daring heist in the north of Italy, spraying two armored cars with bullets and getting away with an huge haul of gold bars and cash, in a real life remake of the classic Michael Caine film “The Italian Job”.

Police say they blocked the Autostrada between Milan and Como with a lorry, and made it look like the truck was on fire.  When the armored cars drove up, the gang approached them wearing bright yellow police bibs.

This is where it turns into a paramilitary assault:  The gang produced Kalashnikov Rifles and fired as many as 50 rounds into the cars.  No one was injured.  But they were able to force their way inside and take what is believed to be as much as A$12.5 Million in gold and bank notes. 

"At the moment we are not able to give an exact figure as we don't know it," Marco Melatti of the armored car company Gruppo Battistolli di Vicenza, told reporters.

Authorities found the getaway cars, which we don’t yet if they were souped-up classic Mini Coopers.