Six Arrested Following 12 Million Euro Robbery on Gold Refining Lab in France

A team of six suspects using assault rifles and handguns employed explosives to force entry into a gold treatment facility located in Lyon, resulting in minor injuries to five workers during what appears to be the most recent prominent daytime heist to affect the country.

The daring raid was carried out on Thursday afternoon, with officers quickly arresting the individuals believed responsible and recovering the stolen goods estimated to be worth €12 million (£10.5 million), according to officials.

Five staff members of Laboratoires Pourquery received light wounds due to the explosion, and three individuals were taken to a medical facility for evaluation, the regional prefecture announced. Twenty-eight workers were inside the facility when the robbers attacked.

The individuals, thought to be experienced criminals, were detained shortly after the incident in the adjacent municipality of Vénissieux, France, authorities revealed.

A woman involved who participated in the heist was taken into custody as well, according to law enforcement.

“Six suspects who used detonations in an assault targeting a precious metals company in the Lyon area were caught in the act,” the French interior minister announced via X, praising officers for their “firmness, rapid response and command”.

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

The heist took place as law enforcement in France on the same day arrested five more suspects, including a primary suspect, in connection with this month's brazen raid on the Louvre museum.

Numerous detectives have been pursuing four thieves who utilized a lorry equipped with a moving lift and cutting tools to breach a first-floor gallery at the museum on the nineteenth of October, fleeing with jewelry valued at approximately €88M.

In a separate high-profile case, burglars recently forced their way into the Natural History Museum in Paris, taking gold specimens worth over $1 million. A woman from China, aged 24 was apprehended in the current month in Barcelona, Spain in connection with the break-in, prosecutors stated.

The sequence of heists has raised concerns in the country regarding insufficient protection at cultural venues and other facilities containing precious artifacts.