Six Suspects Apprehended After 12 Million Euro Robbery on Gold Refining Lab in the French Republic

A team of six suspects carrying military-grade weapons employed explosives to breach the security of a gold refining laboratory located in the city of Lyon, causing light wounds to five staff members during what appears to be the latest high-profile daytime heist to occur in the nation.

The bold operation was carried out on Thursday afternoon, with law enforcement authorities quickly arresting the individuals believed responsible and recovering the stolen goods assessed at around €12M (£10.5M), officials reported.

Five workers of Laboratoires Pourquery sustained minor injuries as a result of the detonation, and three employees required hospital checks for evaluation, the regional prefecture announced. Twenty-eight workers were inside the facility when the thieves struck.

The individuals, considered seasoned offenders, were taken into custody shortly after the incident in the nearby town of Vénissieux, according to investigative sources.

A female participant who participated in the heist was also apprehended, officers confirmed.

“Six individuals who utilized explosives in an attack on a gold refining facility in the Lyon area were apprehended red-handed,” the nation's interior minister declared on social media, praising officers for their “decisiveness, speed and control”.

Assault rifles, handguns and explosives were also confiscated.

The raid happened as French police on that Thursday apprehended five additional individuals, featuring a main perpetrator, in relation to the recent audacious Louvre museum robbery.

Numerous detectives have been hunting four thieves who employed a truck featuring an elevating platform and cutting gear to breach a first-floor gallery at the renowned museum on 19 October, escaping with ornaments assessed at around 88 million euros.

In a different significant robbery, thieves last month entered illegally the Parisian museum of natural history, taking gold specimens estimated at exceeding $1M. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was taken into custody recently in Barcelona in regarding the theft, prosecutors stated.

The sequence of heists has generated apprehension in the country regarding insufficient protection at cultural venues and other facilities holding high-value objects.