Six Arrested Following €12M Robbery on Precious Metals Facility in France

A group of six individuals using assault rifles and handguns employed explosives to force entry into a gold refining laboratory located in Lyon, France, resulting in minor injuries to five staff members during described as the newest significant broad daylight robbery to hit France.

The bold operation took place on the afternoon of Thursday, with officers quickly arresting the individuals believed responsible and securing the stolen items assessed at around 12 million euros (£10.5 million), as stated by authorities.

Five employees of the precious metals facility were slightly hurt due to the explosion, and three employees were transported to hospital for evaluation, the regional prefecture announced. Twenty-eight workers were present on-site when the robbers attacked.

The individuals, thought to be experienced criminals, were arrested soon afterwards in the nearby town of Vénissieux, authorities revealed.

A female participant who took part in the robbery was likewise arrested, according to law enforcement.

“Six people who utilized explosives in an attack on a precious metals company in the Lyon area were apprehended red-handed,” the nation's interior minister declared on social media, commending law enforcement for their “quick action, authority and management”.

High-caliber firearms, handguns and detonation devices were also confiscated.

The robbery occurred as law enforcement in France on the same day detained five further people, featuring a main perpetrator, in regarding this month's brazen Louvre museum robbery.

Dozens of investigators have been pursuing four perpetrators who utilized a lorry equipped with a moving lift and cutting gear to break into an upper-level exhibition space at the prestigious institution on the nineteenth of October, making off with precious items estimated to be worth 88 million euros.

In a separate high-profile case, thieves last month entered illegally the French capital's Natural History Museum, stealing gold samples worth over $1 million. A young Chinese female was apprehended in the current month in Barcelona, Spain in relation to the burglary, prosecutors stated.

The sequence of heists has raised concerns in the country regarding lax security at museums and other institutions holding high-value objects.