Six Individuals Detained Following €12 Million Heist on Gold Processing Laboratory in France
A group of six individuals carrying military-grade weapons employed explosives to break into a gold treatment facility located in Lyon, slightly injuring five workers during what is being called the newest significant daytime heist to hit the country.
The daring raid occurred on Thursday afternoon, with law enforcement authorities swiftly apprehending the alleged criminals and securing the stolen items assessed at around €12M (£10.5M), according to officials.
Five staff members of the gold refining company sustained minor injuries from the blast, and three of them were transported to hospital for evaluation, officials confirmed. Twenty-eight employees were at the location when the perpetrators raided.
The suspects, thought to be career criminals, were arrested a brief time later in the adjacent municipality of the town of Vénissieux, authorities revealed.
A female accomplice who participated in the robbery was also apprehended, officers confirmed.
“Six suspects who used detonations in an attack on a metals processing plant in the Lyon area were caught in the act,” the French interior minister declared on social media, lauding police for their “quick action, authority and management”.
High-caliber firearms, handguns and detonation devices were likewise seized.
The robbery occurred as authorities on that Thursday apprehended five additional individuals, featuring a main perpetrator, in relation to the bold Louvre museum robbery.
Dozens of investigators have been hunting four thieves who used a vehicle equipped with a moving lift and cutting tools to break into an upper-level exhibition space at the renowned museum on the nineteenth of October, making off with precious items estimated to be worth €88M.
In a different significant robbery, burglars recently entered illegally the Natural History Museum in Paris, taking gold specimens valued at more than one million dollars. A young Chinese female was taken into custody recently in Barcelona in relation to the burglary, according to legal authorities.
The string of thefts has raised concerns in the nation regarding inadequate security measures at museums and various establishments housing valuable items.