Six Individuals Detained Following €12 Million Armed Raid on Gold Processing Laboratory in France
A group of six individuals carrying high-powered firearms employed explosives to breach the security of a gold treatment facility located in the city of Lyon, slightly injuring five workers during what appears to be the latest high-profile daylight theft to hit France.
The audacious robbery occurred on Thursday late morning, with officers quickly arresting the alleged criminals and securing the stolen items estimated to be worth €12M (£10.5M), according to officials.
Five workers of the precious metals facility were slightly hurt due to the explosion, and three of them were taken to a medical facility for assessment, the regional prefecture announced. Twenty-eight employees were inside the facility when the thieves struck.
Those arrested, considered seasoned offenders, were detained a brief time later in the neighboring community of Vénissieux, France, authorities revealed.
A woman involved involved in the robbery was also apprehended, a police source indicated.
“Six people who employed explosive devices in an attack on a metals processing plant in the Lyon area were arrested at the scene,” France's security official stated online, praising officers for their “decisiveness, speed and control”.
Assault rifles, handguns and explosives were recovered as well.
The robbery occurred as law enforcement in France on that Thursday detained five further people, featuring a main perpetrator, in regarding the recent audacious Louvre museum robbery.
Many investigative personnel have been pursuing four robbers who employed a truck equipped with a moving lift and cutting tools to access a gallery on the first floor at the prestigious institution on 19 October, fleeing with ornaments assessed at around €88 million.
In a different significant robbery, robbers the previous month broke into the Parisian museum of natural history, taking gold specimens worth over $1 million. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was apprehended in the current month in Barcelona in relation to the burglary, officials confirmed.
The string of thefts has sparked worry in the nation regarding lax security at museums and various establishments holding high-value objects.