Six Arrested Following €12M Robbery on Gold Refining Lab in the French Republic

Six armed perpetrators using assault rifles and handguns employed explosives to break into a gold treatment facility located in Lyon, resulting in minor injuries to five staff members during what is being called the newest significant daylight theft to occur in France.

The daring raid took place on Thursday afternoon, with officers quickly arresting the individuals believed responsible and retrieving the loot valued at approximately 12 million euros (£10.5M), according to officials.

Five staff members of the precious metals facility received light wounds due to the explosion, and three employees were taken to a medical facility for assessment, the regional prefecture announced. A total of twenty-eight staff were inside the facility when the thieves struck.

Those arrested, considered seasoned offenders, were taken into custody a brief time later in the nearby town of Vénissieux, France, authorities revealed.

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

“Six suspects who used detonations in a raid against a precious metals company in the Lyon area were caught in the act,” the French interior minister declared on social media, commending law enforcement for their “decisiveness, speed and control”.

Assault rifles, handguns and explosives were likewise seized.

The raid happened as law enforcement in France on Thursday apprehended five additional individuals, featuring a main perpetrator, in regarding the recent audacious Louvre museum robbery.

Many investigative personnel have been pursuing four thieves who employed a truck featuring an elevating platform and cutting tools to access a gallery on the first floor at the museum on the nineteenth of October, escaping with ornaments assessed at around €88M.

In a separate high-profile case, robbers the previous month entered illegally the French capital's Natural History Museum, taking gold specimens worth over $1 million. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was arrested earlier this month in the city of Barcelona in regarding the theft, according to legal authorities.

This series of robberies has generated apprehension in France regarding lax security at museums and various establishments housing valuable items.