Suspects arrested over Louvre heist

A number of people have been arrested over the theft of crown jewels from the Louvre museum in Paris, the city’s prosecutor has said.

The arrests were made on Saturday evening, and included that of a man said to have been preparing to leave the country from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (Roissy) Airport.

French media BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests or whether the jewels had been recovered.

A police official, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the ongoing case, told The Associated Press that two men in their 30s, both known to police, were taken into custody.

He said one suspect was arrested as he attempted to board a plane bound for Algeria. The official added that one of the suspects was identified through DNA traces. Ms Beccuau said earlier this week that forensics experts were analysing 150 samples at the scene.

The suspects can be held in police custody up to 96 hours.

Thieves took less than eight minutes to steal jewels valued at 88 million euros (£77 million) in a heist last Sunday at the world’s most visited museum – a crime that has shocked the world.

French officials described how the intruders used a cherry picker to scale the Louvre’s facade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled last Sunday morning.

The museum’s director called the incident a “terrible failure”.

Ms Beccuau said investigators from a special police unit in charge of armed robberies, serious burglaries and art thefts made the arrests. She rued in her statement the premature leak of information, saying it could hinder the work of more than 100 investigators “mobilised to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators”.

The prosecutor added that further details will be release when the suspects’ custody period ends.

French interior minister Laurent Nunez praised “the investigators who have worked tirelessly, just as I asked them to, and who have always had my full confidence”.

The Louvre reopened earlier this week after one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century stunned the world with its audacity and scale.

The thieves slipped in and out, making off with parts of France’s crown jewels – a cultural wound that some compared to the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.

The thieves made away with a total of eight objects, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th-century queens Marie-Amelie and Hortense.

They also took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, as well as a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugenie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch – an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship – were also part of the loot.

One piece – Eugenie’s emerald-set imperial crown with more than 1,300 diamonds – was later found outside the museum, damaged but recoverable.

News of the arrests was met with relief by Louvre visitors and passers-by on Sunday, but many said the recovery of the items stolen is more important.

One visitor, Diana Ramirez, said: “I think the main thing now is whether they can recover the jewels. That’s what really matters.”