Several people carrying long guns used explosives to rob a precious-metal company in Lyon, France, on Thursday, and the police quickly arrested six suspects, French officials said.
Police officers recovered the stolen items, according to a social media post by the country’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, who did not elaborate on what was taken. A potential accomplice was also arrested, said Sophie Bernard, a spokeswoman for the local prefect’s office.
The robbery took place hours after five more suspects were arrested in the Paris region in connection with the heist at the Louvre Museum 10 days ago. The Louvre robbery has set off a frantic search for the eight pieces of royal jewelry that the thieves managed to snatch.
This week, an intelligence unit of the French national police warned about an increase in thefts of precious metals such as silver and gold, whose prices have risen to historic levels.
Nuggets of raw gold were stolen last month from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris; the main suspect was arrested later in Barcelona. This month, a hundred gold crosses were stolen from a museum in Mialet, a village in southern France, the police warning said. And the day after the heist at the Louvre, 18th-century gold and silver coins disappeared from a museum in Langres, a small town north of Dijon.
The five burglars in Lyon arrived at the metal company, Pourquery Laboratories, shortly before 2 p.m., the local prefect said in a statement on social media. The perpetrators tried to flee but were quickly arrested by the a special police brigade in charge of search and intervention.
“Five people have been slightly injured,” said Ms. Bernard, of the local prefect’s office. She added in a phone interview that three of them had been taken to the hospital. At the time of the robbery, 28 lab employees were present, according to the statement.
“The loot was seized,” Mr. Nuñez said in his social media message, praising the police’s “firmness, speed, control.”
The employee of another company in the neighborhood said she was drinking coffee when she heard a huge explosion. “We don’t feel safe,” she told reporters.
“This neighborhood already has a reputation as not necessarily safe, but now we don’t feel comfortable going out,” she said.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
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