French police nab six over robbery at gold lab; $18m loot recovered

Six people armed with military-grade weapons used explosives to break into a gold refining laboratory in Lyon on Oct 30, slightly injuring five employees in France’s latest high-profile daytime heist.

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Police officers checking the scene of a robbery at a gold refining laboratory in Lyon on Oct 30. The perpetrators were arrested the same day.

(AFP)

The audacious raid in the eastern city took place that afternoon, with police quickly arresting the suspected perpetrators and recovering the loot estimated at €12 million (S$18 million), officials said.

Five employees of Pourquery Laboratories were “slightly injured in the explosion” and three were taken to hospital for checks, the regional prefecture told AFP.

Twenty-eight employees were present when the robbers struck.

One video posted on social media showed two men dressed in black leaving a white van, one carrying a ladder, which they used to scale the company’s fence.