Six Individuals Detained Following €12M Armed Raid on Precious Metals Facility in France

A team of six suspects carrying assault rifles and handguns employed explosives to break into a precious metals processing plant located in Lyon, France, causing light wounds to five employees during what appears to be the most recent prominent daylight theft to hit the country.

The audacious robbery took place on Thursday late morning, with police forces rapidly detaining the alleged criminals and securing the stolen items estimated to be worth €12 million (£10.5 million), officials reported.

Five staff members of Laboratoires Pourquery received light wounds from the blast, and three of them required hospital checks for assessment, officials confirmed. Twenty-eight workers were at the location when the perpetrators raided.

The suspects, thought to be experienced criminals, were detained soon afterwards in the nearby town of Vénissieux, authorities revealed.

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

“Six people who used detonations in an attack on a precious metals company in the Lyon area were arrested at the scene,” the nation's interior minister declared on social media, lauding police for their “quick action, authority and management”.

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

The raid happened as law enforcement in France on that Thursday apprehended five additional individuals, including a primary suspect, in regarding the bold theft at the Louvre.

Numerous detectives have been searching for four thieves who utilized a lorry with a hydraulic lift and cutting gear to access a gallery on the first floor at the renowned museum on the nineteenth of October, making off with precious items estimated to be worth €88 million.

In a separate high-profile case, thieves last month broke into the Natural History Museum in Paris, taking gold specimens valued at more than one million dollars. A woman from China, aged 24 was arrested earlier this month in Barcelona, Spain in connection with the break-in, officials confirmed.

This series of robberies has sparked worry in the nation regarding insufficient protection at museums and other institutions containing precious artifacts.