COPY LINK

CRIME

Paris heist: Armed robbers flee with luxury Swiss watches

Two armed men fled with several luxury watches after bursting into a branch of Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet in Paris's chic eighth arrondissement on Saturday, police said, the latest in a string of robberies in the French capital.

Published: 20 August 2018 09:10 CEST

Paris heist: Armed robbers flee with luxury Swiss watches

Illustration photo: AFP

The pair, who were armed with handguns, made their escape by car. The value of the stolen items was not known.

An investigation has been launched.

The French capital has seen a number of high-profile jewel robberies in the past few years.

In January, a gang armed with hatchets and handguns burst into the five-star Ritz hotel and smashed the windows of jewellery shops on the ground floor, but became trapped by locked doors as they tried to flee.

Three men have been charged over the heist.

In October 2016, US reality TV star Kim Kardashian was tied up and robbed at gunpoint while staying in a luxury residence for Paris Fashion Week.

The thieves made off with jewellery worth at least nine million euros ($10.3 million), including a ring worth four million dollars alone.

READ ALSO:

A look at the biggest jewellery heists in France

A look at the biggest jewellery heists in France

Photo: AFP

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

French police track forest fire-starters by air and land

Above them, a helicopter scans the landscape to warn them of any fires or anyone who might be looking to start one.

These are the members of a newly created police team who have just started patrolling in southwest France to seek out and arrest the fire-starters devastating the region’s forests.

In the last week, no less than 20 fires have broken out in the forest bordering the seaside resort of Soulac-sur-Mer in the La Gironde department of southwest France, says the local gendarmerie.

While some have burned for just a 100 square metres (322 square feet), the largest devoured 30 hectares (74 acres) of forest.

Scorched trees and charred trunks line the paths and cycle paths that criss-cross the woods.

To stop the devastation, local officials have sent in the new unit, the Forest Vigilance Platoon (PVF) made up of 15 reservist gendarmes, a senior police officer and two motorcyclists from the mobile brigade, backed up by the
helicopter.

Spread across three zones, the PVF patrol the forest on motorbikes, all-terrain bicycles or in cars, where possible, on the hunt for fire-starters.

Set up just last week they started patrolling on Thursday.

The idea is that the PVF will free up firefighters who have been stretched thin battling blazes that since Tuesday have burned up 7,400 hectares of pine forests at the southern end of Gironde.

“After the major fires in July, we observed a rise in the number of arson cases,” said Martin Guespereau, deputy prefect for defence and security in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, which covers the Gironde.

“There are around twenty fires of unknown origin a day in Gironde.”

According to France’s National Forests Office (ONF) nine out of 10 fires were started by people — and three out of 10 were started deliberately.

Forest off-limits

“The Forest Vigilance Platoon is a support division, whose aim is to prevent, detect and possible to arrest,” said Captain Christophe Roque, who was given the job of putting the team together.

Red-and-white signs at the edge of the Soulac-sur-Mer forest inform walkers that due to the “very severe” risk of fire, the forest is off-limits to the public until further notice — and has been since August 11.

A few cyclists were nevertheless out on the trails on Saturday, and were quickly intercepted by the gendarmes of the PVF.

“As soon as we come across someone, we get their identity,” said one member of the team, Bruno Kechtoff. “Because if we come across the same person several times, then that becomes suspicious.”

A message comes over the radio: two outbreaks of fire barely 500 metres (yards) apart, near Bazas, south of Bordeaux, the regional capital. A local has reported seeing someone on a moped wearing “yellow-trimmed” trousers”.

The LVF’s helicopter veers off towards Bazas, 130 kilometres away (80 miles) away.

Where they are sent next depends on where the next fires break out, says Constable Jeremy Hernandez. “We have been called here urgently but we can move if other areas are concerned.”

Then they are in their car and driving off, siren wailing, on the look-out for a quad reported in the woods.

READ MORE:

Url copied to clipboard!