Six Arrested After 12 Million Euro Robbery on Gold Refining Lab in the French Republic
A team of six suspects using assault rifles and handguns used explosive devices to breach the security of a gold refining laboratory located in Lyon, slightly injuring five employees during what is being called the most recent prominent daylight theft to affect France.
The daring raid was carried out on Thursday afternoon, with officers swiftly apprehending the suspected perpetrators and recovering the stolen goods assessed at around €12 million (£10.5M), according to officials.
Five staff members of the gold refining company were slightly hurt from the blast, and three of them were transported to hospital for evaluation, the regional prefecture announced. A total of twenty-eight staff were inside the facility when the thieves struck.
The suspects, thought to be seasoned offenders, were detained a brief time later in the adjacent municipality of VĂ©nissieux, according to investigative sources.
A female accomplice who participated in the heist was also apprehended, officers confirmed.
“Six individuals who used detonations in an attack on a metals processing plant in Lyon were arrested at the scene,” France's security official declared on social media, lauding police for their “firmness, rapid response and command”.
Military-style weapons, pistols and explosive materials were likewise seized.
The robbery occurred as authorities on the same day arrested five more suspects, including a primary suspect, in regarding the recent audacious raid on the Louvre museum.
Many investigative personnel have been searching for four robbers who employed a truck with a hydraulic lift and cutting equipment to access a gallery on the first floor at the museum on the nineteenth of October, escaping with ornaments assessed at around 88 million euros.
In a different significant robbery, thieves last month entered illegally the Natural History Museum in Paris, stealing gold samples worth over $1 million. A woman from China, aged 24 was arrested earlier this month in the city of Barcelona in connection with the break-in, prosecutors stated.
The string of thefts has generated apprehension in the nation regarding lax security at cultural venues and other facilities holding high-value objects.
