Six Arrested Following €12 Million Armed Raid on Gold Processing Laboratory in France

A team of six suspects using assault rifles and handguns employed explosives to break into a gold treatment facility located in Lyon, resulting in minor injuries to five employees during described as the most recent prominent daylight theft to occur in the country.

The bold operation occurred on the afternoon of Thursday, with police forces quickly arresting the suspected perpetrators and recovering the stolen goods estimated to be worth 12 million euros (£10.5M), according to officials.

Five staff members of Laboratoires Pourquery received light wounds from the blast, and three employees were transported to hospital for examination, according to regional authorities. A total of twenty-eight staff were at the location when the thieves struck.

The individuals, believed to be career criminals, were detained a brief time later in the adjacent municipality of the town of Vénissieux, a source close to the investigation stated.

A woman involved who took part in the heist was likewise arrested, officers confirmed.

“Six suspects who used detonations in a raid against a precious metals company in the Lyon area were arrested at the scene,” the French interior minister announced via X, praising officers for their “quick action, authority and management”.

Assault rifles, handguns and explosives were also confiscated.

The heist took place as law enforcement in France on the same day apprehended five additional individuals, featuring a main perpetrator, in connection with the bold raid on the Louvre museum.

Many investigative personnel have been pursuing four perpetrators who employed a truck featuring an elevating platform and cutting equipment to access a gallery on the first floor at the prestigious institution on the nineteenth of October, escaping with ornaments assessed at around €88 million.

In another notable incident, burglars recently entered illegally the French capital's Natural History Museum, taking gold specimens estimated at exceeding $1M. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was apprehended in the current month in the city of Barcelona in connection with the break-in, according to legal authorities.

The string of thefts has raised concerns in the nation regarding lax security at cultural venues and other facilities holding high-value objects.