Six Individuals Detained After 12 Million Euro Robbery on Gold Processing Laboratory in France

Six armed perpetrators using assault rifles and handguns detonated charges to breach the security of a gold refining laboratory located in Lyon, resulting in minor injuries to five employees during what appears to be the most recent prominent daylight theft to occur in the nation.

The audacious robbery occurred on Thursday afternoon, with law enforcement authorities rapidly detaining the suspected perpetrators and retrieving the loot assessed at around €12M (£10.5M), officials reported.

Five employees of the precious metals facility sustained minor injuries due to the explosion, and three employees required hospital checks for examination, officials confirmed. A total of twenty-eight staff were inside the facility when the robbers attacked.

Those arrested, believed to be career criminals, were taken into custody a brief time later in the adjacent municipality of the town of Vénissieux, a source close to the investigation stated.

A female accomplice who participated in the robbery was also apprehended, according to law enforcement.

“Six individuals who employed explosive devices in an assault targeting a metals processing plant in Lyon, France were apprehended red-handed,” the nation's interior minister announced via X, lauding police for their “quick action, authority and management”.

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

The raid happened as law enforcement in France on Thursday apprehended five additional individuals, among them a key figure, in relation to this month's brazen Louvre museum robbery.

Numerous detectives have been hunting four thieves who utilized a lorry featuring an elevating platform and cutting tools to access a gallery on the first floor at the prestigious institution on 19 October, escaping with precious items estimated to be worth €88 million.

In a separate high-profile case, burglars recently forced their way into the Natural History Museum in Paris, stealing gold samples worth over $1 million. A young Chinese female was apprehended in the current month in the city of Barcelona in connection with the break-in, according to legal authorities.

This series of robberies has generated apprehension in France regarding lax security at cultural venues and other facilities holding high-value objects.