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A special unit of the French police has arrested 2 people suspected of being involved in the theft of crown jewels from Paris's Louvre museum, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau has informed, France 24 reported.
The prosecutor said that the arrests were made on Saturday (local time) evening, one person who is now in custody had earlier attempted to leave the country too from Paris-Charles de Daulle airport. French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. Beccuau did not confirm the number of people arrested. France 24 quoted prosecutor Beccuau that the special police unit that apprehended the suspects is in charge of armed robberies and art thefts. After information on the arrests was leaked to the press earlier on Sunday, Beccuau warned such leaks could hinder the work of the more than 100 investigators who have been "mobilised to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators". According to Le Parisien, which first broke the story, the two suspects are in their 30s and originally from the capital's Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, which includes some of the country's most deprived areas, and were known to French police. France 24 mentioned that French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez praised "the investigators who have worked tirelessly, just as I asked them to, and who have always had my full confidence". The people who carried out the museum 'heist' stole the jewels, valued at EUR 88 million (or USD 102 million), in less than 8 minutes. Investigators say the thieves rode a basket lift up the building's facade on the morning of October 19, forced open a window and smashed two display cases before fleeing on motorbikes. Witnesses say that the alarms sounded, drawing security to the gallery while museum visitors were forced to evacuate. France 24 reported that the thieves escaped shortly after 9:30am, making off with several of France's Crown Jewels - a cultural loss that some compared to the burning of Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019. The thieves stole a total of eight objects, including a sapphire diadem, a necklace and a single earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense. They also took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte's second wife, as well as a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugenie's diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch - an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship - were also part of the loot. France 24 mentioned that one of the pieces, Eugenie's emerald-set imperial crown with more than 1,300 diamonds - was later found outside the museum, damaged but recoverable. (ANI)
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