Six Arrested After 12 Million Euro Armed Raid on Gold Refining Lab in France

Six armed perpetrators carrying high-powered firearms used explosive devices to breach the security of a precious metals processing plant located in the city of Lyon, slightly injuring five workers during what is being called the latest high-profile daytime heist to affect the nation.

The audacious robbery was carried out on Thursday afternoon, with police forces 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 precious metals facility sustained minor injuries due to the explosion, and three individuals were transported to hospital for examination, the regional prefecture announced. Twenty-eight workers were at the location when the perpetrators raided.

Those arrested, considered experienced criminals, were taken into custody soon afterwards in the adjacent municipality of Vénissieux, according to investigative sources.

A female participant who participated in the heist was likewise arrested, a police source indicated.

“Six people who used detonations in an assault targeting a gold refining facility in Lyon, France were apprehended red-handed,” the nation's interior minister declared on social media, commending law enforcement for their “decisiveness, speed and control”.

Assault rifles, handguns and explosives were likewise seized.

The robbery occurred as French police on Thursday arrested five more suspects, among them a key figure, in regarding this month's brazen raid on the Louvre museum.

Numerous detectives have been searching for four robbers who utilized a lorry with a hydraulic lift and cutting equipment to access a gallery on the first floor at the renowned museum on 19 October, fleeing with jewelry valued at approximately €88 million.

In a separate high-profile case, robbers the previous month broke into the Parisian museum of natural history, 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 relation to the burglary, prosecutors stated.

The sequence of heists has generated apprehension in the country regarding insufficient protection at museums and various establishments housing valuable items.