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

A team of six suspects carrying high-powered firearms detonated charges to force entry into a precious metals processing plant located in the city of Lyon, causing light wounds to five employees during described as the latest high-profile daytime heist to affect the nation.

The daring raid was carried out on Thursday afternoon, with officers rapidly detaining the suspected perpetrators and retrieving the loot valued at approximately €12 million (£10.5 million), as stated by authorities.

Five staff members of the gold refining company received light wounds due to the explosion, and three of them were taken to a medical facility for examination, officials confirmed. A total of twenty-eight staff were at the location when the perpetrators raided.

Those arrested, thought to be seasoned offenders, were taken into custody soon afterwards in the nearby town of Vénissieux, France, a source close to the investigation stated.

A woman involved who participated in the heist was also apprehended, a police source indicated.

“Six suspects who used detonations in an attack on a metals processing plant in Lyon were arrested at the scene,” the French interior minister announced via X, praising officers for their “quick action, authority and management”.

High-caliber firearms, handguns and detonation devices were likewise seized.

The heist took place as law enforcement in France on Thursday apprehended five additional individuals, including a primary suspect, in regarding the recent audacious raid on the Louvre museum.

Dozens of investigators have been pursuing four robbers who employed a truck equipped with a moving lift and cutting equipment to break into an upper-level exhibition space at the renowned museum on the nineteenth of October, escaping with ornaments assessed at around 88 million euros.

In a different significant robbery, burglars recently entered illegally the French capital's Natural History Museum, making off with gold samples valued at more than one million dollars. A woman from China, aged 24 was taken into custody recently in the city of Barcelona in regarding the theft, officials confirmed.

The string of thefts has generated apprehension in the nation regarding inadequate security measures at museums and various establishments holding high-value objects.