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

Six armed perpetrators using high-powered firearms detonated charges to breach the security of a gold treatment facility located in the city of Lyon, causing light wounds to five staff members during what appears to be the newest significant broad daylight robbery to hit France.

The daring raid took place on Thursday late morning, with police forces rapidly detaining the individuals believed responsible and retrieving the loot assessed at around €12M (£10.5M), as stated by authorities.

Five workers of the gold refining company sustained minor injuries as a result of the detonation, and three of them were transported to hospital for assessment, the regional prefecture announced. Twenty-eight workers were at the location when the thieves struck.

Those arrested, believed to be career criminals, were taken into custody a brief time later in the adjacent municipality of Vénissieux, France, a source close to the investigation stated.

A female participant involved in the robbery was taken into custody as well, a police source indicated.

“Six people who used detonations in a raid against a metals processing plant in Lyon, France were apprehended red-handed,” the nation's interior minister announced via X, praising officers for their “decisiveness, speed and control”.

High-caliber firearms, handguns and detonation devices were recovered as well.

The heist took place as law enforcement in France on that Thursday apprehended five additional individuals, among them a key figure, in connection with the recent audacious Louvre museum robbery.

Dozens of investigators have been pursuing four robbers who employed a truck featuring an elevating platform and cutting gear to access a gallery on the first floor at the renowned museum on October 19th, escaping with ornaments assessed at around €88 million.

In another notable incident, burglars recently entered illegally the Natural History Museum in Paris, making off with gold samples valued at more than one million dollars. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was taken into custody recently in Barcelona in regarding the theft, officials confirmed.

This series of robberies has raised concerns in the nation regarding inadequate security measures at cultural venues and other facilities containing precious artifacts.