Dhaka, Feb 22 (IANS): At least $250,000 was looted from a leading state-owned bank in Bangladesh last year by hacking its password, a top government official said Saturday.

The revelation came at the annual conference of the Sonali Bank Saturday morning at a hotel here.

Hackers allegedly broke into the bank's server and transfered $250,000 to their accounts, the Daily Star cited Mohmmad Aslam Alam, secretary of the bank and financial institutions division under the country's finance ministry, as saying.

Bangladesh Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith and other top officials were also present in the conference.

Alam recommended that the bank's risk management system should be strengthened to avoid recurrence of such incidents.

He also talked about other two incidents - the Kishoreganj Sonali Bank heist Jan 24 and trespassing into the bank's head office at Motijheel area in Dhaka during a rally May 5 last year.

The incidents could have been avoided had there been appropriate security measures, Alam said.