SEATTLE -- Police officers swarmed the area near 5th and Cherry in Downtown Seattle late Monday morning in response to an attempted robbery at the Columbia Center.

The incident began just before noon when a suspicious man was inside a bank in the lobby. The teller motioned to a Seattle police captain, who just happened to be in the lobby doing a business transaction, that the guy may be trying to rob the bank, said Sean Whitcomb with Seattle police.

The captain went over to the man, but the man ran out of the building, Whitcomb said. As the captain was shouting orders to stop, the man jumped into a waiting cab out in front that had a woman in the backseat and the cab's driver in the driver's seat.

He told the cab driver to speed away or he would hurt him, but the driver refused and just got out of the car and ran.

The would-be robber jumped into the driver's seat, but couldn't get the car to go, so he exited and ran away on foot, Whitcomb said. The captain called for backup and held the woman until more officers could arrive.

SWAT team officers and hostage negotiators tried to get the woman inside the cab to surrender, but she would not obey any of their commands, Whitcomb said. After several minutes of attempts, an officer fired a plastic round into the rear windshield of the cab to blow out the window. The woman quickly surrendered.

She was arrested and taken for questioning. Whitcomb said detectives still aren't sure what connection, if any, she had to the attempted robbery, but noted the cab door was open when the man ran out of the Columbia Center.

The man is still on the loose. Whitcomb described him as a heavy-set African-American man, 6 feet 2 to 6 feet 4 inches tall weighing over 250 pounds. He's in his late 30s, and was wearing dark clothes and a dirty pink backpack. If you see him or know who he is, you're asked to call 911.

Whitcomb said no money was taken from the bank, and no one was injured.