Six Arrested After €12M Heist on Precious Metals Facility in France

A group of six individuals equipped with assault rifles and handguns employed explosives to break into a gold treatment facility located in Lyon, slightly injuring five employees during what appears to be the most recent prominent broad daylight robbery to occur in the country.

The bold operation was carried out on Thursday afternoon, with police forces quickly arresting the suspected perpetrators and securing the stolen items valued at approximately €12 million (10.5 million pounds), according to officials.

Five staff members of Laboratoires Pourquery were slightly hurt as a result of the detonation, and three employees were taken to a medical facility for examination, officials confirmed. Twenty-eight employees were present on-site when the thieves struck.

Those arrested, thought to be career criminals, were arrested a brief time later in the neighboring community of the town of Vénissieux, according to investigative sources.

A woman involved who participated in the heist was taken into custody as well, according to law enforcement.

“Six individuals who employed explosive devices in an assault targeting a precious metals company in the Lyon area were apprehended red-handed,” the French interior minister announced via X, lauding police for their “quick action, authority and management”.

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

The heist took place as French police on the same day apprehended five additional individuals, featuring a main perpetrator, in relation to the bold theft at the Louvre.

Dozens of investigators have been hunting four thieves who employed a truck featuring an elevating platform and cutting tools to breach a first-floor gallery at the museum on October 19th, fleeing with precious items estimated to be worth 88 million euros.

In a separate high-profile case, robbers the previous month entered illegally the Parisian museum of natural history, making off with gold samples estimated at exceeding $1M. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was taken into custody recently in the city of Barcelona in connection with the break-in, according to legal authorities.

The string of thefts has generated apprehension in the nation regarding inadequate security measures at cultural venues and other facilities holding high-value objects.