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

A group of six individuals carrying assault rifles and handguns detonated charges to break into a gold treatment facility located in Lyon, causing light wounds to five employees during what is being called the most recent prominent daytime heist to affect France.

The bold operation was carried out on Thursday afternoon, with police forces swiftly apprehending the individuals believed responsible and retrieving the loot estimated to be worth €12M (£10.5M), according to officials.

Five staff members of Laboratoires Pourquery were slightly hurt due to the explosion, and three individuals required hospital checks for evaluation, officials confirmed. Twenty-eight workers were at the location when the perpetrators raided.

Those arrested, considered experienced criminals, were arrested shortly after the incident in the nearby town of Vénissieux, France, according to investigative sources.

A female accomplice who took part in the raid was likewise arrested, according to law enforcement.

“Six individuals who used detonations in an assault targeting a precious metals company in Lyon were arrested at the scene,” the nation's interior minister declared on social media, praising officers for their “quick action, authority and management”.

Military-style weapons, pistols and explosive materials were recovered as well.

The raid happened as law enforcement in France on that Thursday arrested five more suspects, featuring a main perpetrator, in connection with the bold raid on the Louvre museum.

Many investigative personnel have been hunting four perpetrators who used a vehicle with a hydraulic lift and cutting equipment to breach a first-floor gallery at the prestigious institution on 19 October, making off with precious items estimated to be worth 88 million euros.

In another notable incident, robbers the previous month entered illegally the Parisian museum of natural history, making off with gold samples estimated at exceeding $1M. A young Chinese female was arrested earlier this month in Barcelona, Spain in regarding the theft, officials confirmed.

The sequence of heists has raised concerns in France regarding insufficient protection at museums and various establishments containing precious artifacts.