A pair of surgeon's gloves was allegedly the trademark of a suspect arrested in Thessaloniki yesterday, accused of holding up a series of banks in the northern Greek city, police said.

The man, aged 33, is accused of robbing a branch of Piraeus Bank on Wednesday and another branch of the same bank in early May.

According to authorities, he had worn the gloves during each robbery in order to avoid leaving fingerprints, however, the gloves ended up helping police trace the crimes back to the suspect. Of the 13,700 euros allegedly taken from the holdups, police found in his possession 9,780 euros along with two knives, surgeon's gloves, stockings and a shirt - tools police believe were used during the holdups. The suspect had allegedly committed the crimes with the aid of a toy gun and a knife.