A SWAT team stormed a US bank to end a 90-minute stand-off - only to find their suspect was a cardboard cutout.

Police had responded to an alarm going off at a branch of the PNC bank in Montgomery Township, New Jersey, and spotted a menacing-looking figure inside.

The shadowy image was behind the closed blinds of the bank, which was closed for Thanksgiving, reports the Star-Ledger.

Police sealed off the area to traffic and evacuated three nearby apartment buildings, while trying to make contact with their suspect by megaphone and telephone.

A SWAT team finally decided to end the impasse by storming the bank but found no one inside except the life-sized cutout.

-Nova