Six Arrested Following €12M Robbery on Precious Metals Facility in France

A team of six suspects carrying military-grade weapons employed explosives to breach the security of a precious metals processing plant located in the city of Lyon, slightly injuring five workers during described as the latest high-profile broad daylight robbery to occur in France.

The bold operation was carried out on Thursday afternoon, with police forces quickly arresting the suspected perpetrators and retrieving the loot estimated to be worth €12 million (£10.5M), as stated by authorities.

Five employees of the gold refining company received light wounds from the blast, and three of them required hospital checks for evaluation, officials confirmed. A total of twenty-eight staff were present on-site when the robbers attacked.

Those arrested, considered experienced criminals, were detained a brief time later in the nearby town of Vénissieux, a source close to the investigation stated.

A female participant who took part in the raid was also apprehended, a police source indicated.

“Six suspects who used detonations in an attack on a precious metals company in the Lyon area were apprehended red-handed,” the French interior minister announced via X, lauding police for their “decisiveness, speed and control”.

High-caliber firearms, handguns and detonation devices were recovered as well.

The robbery occurred as law enforcement in France on the same day detained five further people, including a primary suspect, in relation to the bold theft at the Louvre.

Numerous detectives have been hunting four thieves who utilized a lorry featuring an elevating platform and cutting tools to access a gallery on the first floor at the prestigious institution on the nineteenth of October, fleeing with precious items estimated to be worth €88 million.

In a different significant robbery, robbers the previous month broke into the Natural History Museum in Paris, taking gold specimens valued at more than one million dollars. A woman from China, aged 24 was arrested earlier this month in the city of Barcelona in connection with the break-in, according to legal authorities.

The string of thefts has generated apprehension in the country regarding lax security at museums and various establishments housing valuable items.