Six Arrested After €12 Million Robbery on Gold Processing Laboratory in France

A group of six individuals carrying assault rifles and handguns employed explosives to break into a precious metals processing plant located in Lyon, resulting in minor injuries to five workers during what appears to be the latest high-profile daylight theft to affect France.

The bold operation was carried out on Thursday late morning, with police forces rapidly detaining the individuals believed responsible and recovering the stolen goods assessed at around €12 million (£10.5 million), officials reported.

Five employees of Laboratoires Pourquery were slightly hurt as a result of the detonation, and three employees were taken to a medical facility for examination, officials confirmed. Twenty-eight workers were present on-site when the thieves struck.

The individuals, believed to be seasoned offenders, were taken into custody shortly after the incident in the adjacent municipality of Vénissieux, France, according to investigative sources.

A female accomplice who took part in the heist was taken into custody as well, according to law enforcement.

“Six individuals who utilized explosives in an assault targeting a metals processing plant in Lyon, France were apprehended red-handed,” France's security official stated online, commending law enforcement for their “quick action, authority and management”.

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

The raid happened 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 hunting four perpetrators who used a vehicle equipped with a moving lift and cutting tools to access a gallery on the first floor at the museum on the nineteenth of October, escaping with jewelry valued at approximately €88 million.

In another notable incident, robbers the previous month broke into the Parisian museum of natural history, taking gold specimens estimated at exceeding $1M. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was apprehended in the current month in Barcelona in relation to the burglary, officials confirmed.

The string of thefts has generated apprehension in the nation regarding insufficient protection at cultural venues and other facilities housing valuable items.