SHANGHAI, April 20 -- Two employees who stole 51 million yuan (US$6.6 million) from the bank where they worked have told police they spent 43 million yuan of the stolen money on buying lottery tickets, the Nanjing Morning Post reported today.

Ren Xiaofeng and Ma Xiangjing, treasury guards at the Handan branch of the Agricultural Bank of China in Hebei Province, said they had stolen 43 million yuan cash over more than one month to buy lottery tickets, hoping to make a fortune and return the money.

Ren was caught by police yesterday morning in Lianyungang City in Jiangsu Province. He gave details of the massive theft in an interview with the newspaper. Ma was captured by police in Beijing on Wednesday.

Stealing from the bank was quite "simple" since the money stored in the treasury was not inspected and counted on a day-to-day basis, the newspaper quoted Ren as saying.

On their first try, they stole 50,000 yuan to buy lottery tickets but won nothing. They stole 14.1 million yuan to buy more lottery tickets in their last desperate attempt to win back all the money. But they failed again.

Fearing the theft would be discovered, they stole 8 million yuan in cash on Saturday, divided the money and fled separately, the report said.

Hebei police said yesterday they had seized 46 million yuan, including 4 million yuan they seized from each of the men. The police were able to freeze the money they spent on lottery tickets because the funds were still being transferred within the lottery payment process.

Altogether six suspects are under arrest in the affair, Cao Aiping, vice director of the Hebei Province Public Security Bureau, was quoted by Beijing Star Daily as saying. Conflicting media reports said the suspects include bank employees and lottery sellers. Their identities have not been officially confirmed.

An automobile seller in Lianyungang from whom Ren had bought a car during his escape was the first person to tip police and is likely to get a big reward, Jiangsu police said.

Police had offered a 50,000 yuan reward to anyone who could provide information leading to the arrest of the suspects.