Six Arrested After €12M Heist on Gold Refining Lab in the French Republic

A team of six suspects using assault rifles and handguns employed explosives to breach the security of a gold treatment facility located in the city of Lyon, causing light wounds to five employees during what is being called the most recent prominent broad daylight robbery to hit the country.

The bold operation occurred on the afternoon of Thursday, with police forces rapidly detaining the individuals believed responsible and securing the stolen items estimated to be worth €12 million (£10.5 million), as stated by authorities.

Five employees of Laboratoires Pourquery were slightly hurt from the blast, and three of them required hospital checks for evaluation, according to regional authorities. Twenty-eight workers were inside the facility when the thieves struck.

The suspects, thought to be seasoned offenders, were arrested soon afterwards in the adjacent municipality of the town of Vénissieux, authorities revealed.

A female accomplice who participated in the robbery was also apprehended, officers confirmed.

“Six individuals who used detonations in a raid against a gold refining facility in Lyon, France were arrested at the scene,” France's security official declared on social media, commending law enforcement for their “quick action, authority and management”.

Assault rifles, handguns and explosives were recovered as well.

The robbery occurred as authorities on that Thursday detained five further people, featuring a main perpetrator, in regarding the bold theft at the Louvre.

Dozens of investigators have been searching for four thieves who used a vehicle equipped with a moving lift and cutting gear to access a gallery on the first floor at the prestigious institution on October 19th, fleeing with ornaments assessed at around €88 million.

In another notable incident, robbers the previous month entered illegally the French capital's Natural History Museum, making off with gold samples estimated at exceeding $1M. A young Chinese female was taken into custody recently in the city of Barcelona in connection with the break-in, prosecutors stated.

The sequence of heists has generated apprehension in the nation regarding lax security at museums and other institutions containing precious artifacts.