French police arrest six over armed robbery at gold laboratory

LYON

Members of the French Brigade de Recherche et d'Intervention (BRI - Research and Intervention Brigade) police unit check the scene of a robbery at a gold refining laboratory in Lyon, central-eastern France, on Oct. 30.

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

The audacious raid in the eastern city took place on Oct. 30 afternoon, with police quickly arresting the suspected perpetrators and recovering the loot estimated at 12 million euros ($13.8 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.

In the video footage, a witness, apparently an employee at a neighboring company, can be heard alerting the emergency services, saying he and his colleagues had heard a "huge explosion" and the robbers carried "Kalashnikovs."

In another video shot from a different angle, a robber carrying a weapon can be seen opening the rear door of a white van, into which an accomplice loads two black briefcases.

The suspects, believed to be seasoned criminals, were detained shortly after in the neighboring town of Venissieux, a source close to the case told AFP.

A woman, an accomplice who took part in the robbery, was also arrested, the source said.