Several suspects have been arrested in the wake of the £76 million heist at the Louvre Museum, prosecutors in Paris have announced.
Police arrested a number of people on Saturday (25 October) evening in connection with the elaborate break-in at the world’s most-visited museum on 19 October.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm how many people had been taken into custody, although local media reports claim at least two suspects have been apprehended. But the French magistrate did reveal that one of the alleged robbers rounded up by officials over the weekend was said to have been preparing to leave the country from Roissy Airport.
Investigators who are part of the Brigade de Recherche et d'Intervention (BRI) - better known as the 'anti-gang brigade' - made the arrests.
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Ms Beccuau urged people to avoid speculation and premature reporting on the heist, warning it could hinder the work of the more than 100 officers who have been 'mobilised to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators'.
The local news outlet Le Parisien first reported on Sunday morning that two suspects had been apprehended by officials last night.
The publication claimed that the pair - who are said to hail from Seine-Saint-Denis and believed to be in their 30s - are both now being quizzed by officials.
It is believed that the duo are part of a four-person gang that organised the staggering heist, which took less than eight minutes and has stunned the world.
The thieves slipped in and out of the Louvre on 19 October, making off with eight pieces from France’s Crown Jewels at the world’s most-visited museum.
The gang arrived on scooters before using a basket lift to reach a second-floor window, where they used mini chainsaws to gain access. While disguised as construction workers, the men then smashed into the glass in the Apollon Gallery, where the crown diamonds are displayed.
They reportedly took off with eight pieces, thought to be worth an 'incalculable' amount of money.
They stole a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; Empress Eugénie’s diadem; and her large corsage-bow brooch.
The director of the Louvre Museum earlier acknowledged a 'terrible failure' at the Paris museum after the daylight crown-jewel heist—and said she offered to resign, but it was refused.
In testimony to the French Senate, Louvre director Laurence des Cars said the museum had a damaging shortage of security cameras outside the monument and other 'weaknesses' exposed by Sunday’s theft.
Facing mounting pressure to step down in the wake of the elaborate heist, des Cars testified before a Senate committee that she had submitted her resignation, but the culture minister refused to accept it.
"Today we are experiencing a terrible failure at the Louvre, which I take my share of responsibility in," she said. "We did not detect the arrival of the thieves soon enough."
In the wake of the dramatic heist, French President Emmanuel Macron promised that the artefacts would be returned and that the robbers would be brought to justice.
He said: “The theft committed at the Louvre is an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is part of our history. We will recover the works, and the perpetrators will be brought to justice.
“Everything is being done, everywhere, to achieve this, under the leadership of the Paris prosecutor’s office."
LADbible has contacted the Paris Police Prefecture and the Paris regional government for comment.
Topics: World News, Crime
Olivia Burke