Six Individuals Detained Following €12M Heist on Gold Refining Lab in France

Six armed perpetrators using high-powered firearms employed explosives to force entry into a gold treatment facility located in the city of Lyon, resulting in minor injuries to five staff members during what is being called the newest significant daylight theft to affect the country.

The daring raid took place on the afternoon of Thursday, with police forces quickly arresting the suspected perpetrators and securing the stolen items estimated to be worth €12M (£10.5M), officials reported.

Five employees of the gold refining company received light wounds as a result of the detonation, and three individuals required hospital checks for assessment, officials confirmed. Twenty-eight employees were at the location when the thieves struck.

The suspects, considered seasoned offenders, were detained shortly after the incident in the neighboring community of Vénissieux, authorities revealed.

A female participant who took part in the robbery was taken into custody as well, officers confirmed.

“Six suspects who utilized explosives in an assault targeting a gold refining facility in the Lyon area were caught in the act,” the French interior minister declared on social media, commending law enforcement for their “firmness, rapid response and command”.

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

The raid happened as French police on the same day apprehended five additional individuals, including a primary suspect, in regarding the bold raid on the Louvre museum.

Many investigative personnel have been hunting four thieves who used a vehicle equipped with a moving lift and cutting tools to break into an upper-level exhibition space at the renowned museum on 19 October, escaping with precious items estimated to be worth €88 million.

In a different significant robbery, robbers the previous month entered illegally the French capital's Natural History Museum, taking gold specimens worth over $1 million. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested earlier this month in the city of Barcelona in regarding the theft, prosecutors stated.

The sequence of heists has sparked worry in France regarding insufficient protection at cultural venues and other facilities housing valuable items.