Six Arrested After €12M Robbery on Gold Processing Laboratory in the French Republic

Six armed perpetrators equipped with high-powered firearms used explosive devices to breach the security of a gold treatment facility located in the city of Lyon, slightly injuring five workers during what is being called the latest high-profile broad daylight robbery to affect the nation.

The audacious robbery took place on Thursday afternoon, with law enforcement authorities swiftly apprehending the individuals believed responsible and retrieving the loot estimated to be worth €12M (10.5 million pounds), as stated by authorities.

Five staff members of the precious metals facility received light wounds due to the explosion, and three of them required hospital checks for assessment, according to regional authorities. A total of twenty-eight staff were inside the facility when the perpetrators raided.

Those arrested, considered career criminals, were detained soon afterwards in the adjacent municipality of Vénissieux, France, a source close to the investigation stated.

A female participant involved in the heist was taken into custody as well, officers confirmed.

“Six people who utilized explosives in an attack on a metals processing plant in the Lyon area were apprehended red-handed,” the nation's interior minister declared on social media, commending law enforcement for their “quick action, authority and management”.

Military-style weapons, pistols and explosive materials were also confiscated.

The raid happened as authorities on the same day arrested five more suspects, featuring a main perpetrator, in regarding the bold raid on the Louvre museum.

Dozens of investigators have been pursuing four robbers who utilized a lorry featuring an elevating platform and cutting tools to access a gallery on the first floor at the renowned museum on 19 October, making off with jewelry valued at approximately €88 million.

In a separate high-profile case, burglars recently broke into the Natural History Museum in Paris, taking gold specimens valued at more than one million dollars. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested earlier this month in Barcelona in relation to the burglary, according to legal authorities.

The sequence of heists has sparked worry in the nation regarding insufficient protection at museums and various establishments housing valuable items.