Five new suspects arrested over jewellery theft

Five more suspects have been arrested over their involvement in the Louvre heist, Paris’ public prosecutor has said.

They were detained on Wednesday night in the Paris region during coordinated raids, according to Laure Beccuau.

One of the suspects is thought to be part of the four-man team that carried out the heist, who were seen on CCTV.

Two of the other alleged thieves have already been arrested and have “partially recognised” their involvement in the brazen theft, while the fourth person has not yet been caught.

It is not clear what role the other newly arrested people allegedly played in the theft, but Beccuau told French radio station RTL on Thursday that they “may eventually inform us about how the incident took place”.

Beccuau said the arrests had been made in areas in and around Paris, including the suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

Phones and other objects found on the suspects during the raid were allowing investigators to study encrypted messages, she added.

Those arrested can be detained for up to four days before being charged or released.

French investigators are not giving many more details away at this stage but Beccuau said that DNA from one of those arrested on Wednesday night could be linked to the crime scene.

“We had him in our sights,” she said of the main suspect.

She specified that the latest arrests were not related to statements made by the previously detained suspects but to “other elements of the case”.

The authorities have previously said that the gang involved in the heist could be bigger than those who physically stole the jewels.

Items worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were taken from the Louvre – the world’s most-visited museum – on 19 October, when four thieves broke into the building in broad daylight. The precious jewels have not been recovered yet.

The first two people who were arrested over the heist – both men in their thirties with criminal records – are thought to be the pair who used power tools to enter the museum’s Galerie d’Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) and steal some of the French crown jewels.

They were taken into custody late last week. Beccuau told a press conference on Wednesday that one of the men was arrested as he tried to board a one-way flight to Algeria, but that the other man had not been planning to leave France, contrary to earlier media reports.

There was no evidence at this stage to suggest the theft was an inside job, she added, confirming no accomplices worked at the museum.

On the day of the heist, the robbers arrived at 09:30, just after the museum opened to visitors, Beccuau said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The suspects arrived with a stolen vehicle-mounted mechanical lift to gain access to the Gallery of Apollo via a balcony close to the River Seine. The men used a disc cutter to crack open display cases housing the jewellery.

Beccuau said the thieves were inside for four minutes and made their escape on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38, before switching to cars and heading east. Nobody had been threatened during the raid.

France’s justice minister said security protocols in the Louvre – one of the world’s most famous museums – “failed” in preventing the theft.

It was later revealed by the Louvre’s director that the only camera monitoring the Gallery of Apollo was pointing away from a balcony the thieves climbed over to break in.

Since the incident, security measures have been tightened around France’s cultural institutions.

The Louvre has transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France following the heist. They will now be stored in the Bank’s most secure vault, 26m (85ft) below the ground floor of its elegant headquarters in central Paris.