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

Six armed perpetrators carrying assault rifles and handguns detonated charges to force entry into a precious metals processing plant located in the city of Lyon, slightly injuring five workers during what is being called the newest significant broad daylight robbery to occur in France.

The audacious robbery occurred on Thursday late morning, with law enforcement authorities quickly arresting the alleged criminals and retrieving the loot estimated to be worth €12M (£10.5M), according to officials.

Five workers of Laboratoires Pourquery sustained minor injuries from the blast, and three of them required hospital checks for examination, officials confirmed. Twenty-eight employees were present on-site when the perpetrators raided.

Those arrested, considered career criminals, were detained shortly after the incident in the neighboring community of Vénissieux, authorities revealed.

A female participant involved in the robbery was likewise arrested, a police source indicated.

“Six individuals who utilized explosives in a raid against a precious metals company in Lyon, France were apprehended red-handed,” the French interior minister declared on social media, praising officers for their “quick action, authority and management”.

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

The robbery occurred as authorities on the same day detained five further people, featuring a main perpetrator, in relation to this month's brazen Louvre museum robbery.

Many investigative personnel have been pursuing four thieves who used a vehicle with a hydraulic lift and cutting tools to break into an upper-level exhibition space at the prestigious institution on the nineteenth of October, making off with ornaments assessed at around €88 million.

In a separate high-profile case, robbers the previous month broke into the French capital's Natural History Museum, taking gold specimens worth over $1 million. A woman from China, aged 24 was apprehended in the current month in the city of Barcelona in relation to the burglary, prosecutors stated.

The sequence of heists has raised concerns in the nation regarding inadequate security measures at museums and other institutions holding high-value objects.