Six Arrested Following €12M Armed Raid on Gold Refining Lab in France

A team of six suspects equipped with high-powered firearms employed explosives to breach the security of a gold refining laboratory located in Lyon, resulting in minor injuries to five workers during what appears to be the most recent prominent broad daylight robbery to occur in the country.

The bold operation occurred on Thursday afternoon, with law enforcement authorities swiftly apprehending the suspected perpetrators and retrieving the loot estimated to be worth 12 million euros (£10.5M), according to officials.

Five workers of Laboratoires Pourquery received light wounds from the blast, and three of them were taken to a medical facility for assessment, officials confirmed. Twenty-eight workers were at the location when the thieves struck.

Those arrested, considered experienced criminals, were arrested a brief time later in the neighboring community of the town of Vénissieux, according to investigative sources.

A female accomplice who took part in the heist was likewise arrested, officers confirmed.

“Six people who utilized explosives in an attack on a precious metals company in the Lyon area were arrested at the scene,” France's security official announced via X, lauding police for their “firmness, rapid response and command”.

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

The robbery occurred as French police on that Thursday detained five further people, including a primary suspect, in connection with the recent audacious theft at the Louvre.

Many investigative personnel have been searching for four perpetrators who employed a truck with a hydraulic lift and cutting equipment to breach a first-floor gallery at the museum on the nineteenth of October, fleeing with ornaments assessed at around €88M.

In another notable incident, thieves last month broke into the French capital's Natural History Museum, stealing gold samples valued at more than one million dollars. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was apprehended in the current month in Barcelona in connection with the break-in, according to legal authorities.

The string of thefts has sparked worry in the country regarding inadequate security measures at museums and other institutions holding high-value objects.