Suspects arrested after £77m Louvre jewel heist

A NUMBER of people have been arrested over the theft of crown jewels from the Louvre museum in Paris, the city’s prosecutor has said.

- ASSOCIATED PRESS

Visitors queue outside the Louvre museum, Paris, yesterday

The arrests were made on Saturday evening, and included that of a man said to have been preparing to leave the country from Roissy Airport.

French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests or whether the jewels had been recovered.

Thieves took less than eight minutes to steal jewels valued at 88 million euros (£77 million) in a heist last Sunday at the world’s most visited museum.

French officials described how the intruders used a cherry picker to scale the Louvre’s facade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled last Sunday morning.