Six Individuals Detained After 12 Million Euro Heist on Gold Refining Lab in France

A team of six suspects equipped with high-powered firearms detonated charges to force entry into a gold refining laboratory located in Lyon, causing light wounds to five staff members during what is being called the latest high-profile broad daylight robbery to hit the country.

The audacious robbery was carried out on the afternoon of Thursday, with officers rapidly detaining the suspected perpetrators and securing the stolen items estimated to be worth €12M (£10.5M), officials reported.

Five employees of the precious metals facility received light wounds as a result of the detonation, and three of them required hospital checks for evaluation, according to regional authorities. A total of twenty-eight staff were inside the facility when the perpetrators raided.

The suspects, thought to be experienced criminals, were arrested shortly after the incident in the neighboring community of Vénissieux, authorities revealed.

A female accomplice who participated in the heist was taken into custody as well, a police source indicated.

“Six people who used detonations in an attack on a gold refining facility in Lyon were apprehended red-handed,” the nation's interior minister announced via X, lauding police for their “decisiveness, speed and control”.

Assault rifles, handguns and explosives were also confiscated.

The raid happened as law enforcement in France on the same day apprehended five additional individuals, including a primary suspect, in connection with this month's brazen raid on the Louvre museum.

Dozens of investigators have been searching for four thieves who used a vehicle equipped with a moving lift and cutting gear to breach a first-floor gallery at the museum on October 19th, making off with jewelry valued at approximately €88M.

In another notable incident, thieves last month broke into the Parisian museum of natural history, making off with gold samples estimated at exceeding $1M. A woman from China, aged 24 was arrested earlier this month in the city of Barcelona in connection with the break-in, prosecutors stated.

The string of thefts has raised concerns in the nation regarding insufficient protection at cultural venues and other facilities containing precious artifacts.