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'Gigantic' diamond heist at Brussels airport Diamond heist at Brussels airport nets gang up to £30m in gems
(about 1 hour later)
Police are looking for eight men who made a hole in a security fence at Brussels international airport, drove on to the tarmac and stole diamonds worth tens of millions of pounds from the hold of a Switzerland-bound plane. Belgian police are looking for eight masked gunmen who stole tens of millions of pounds worth of jewels from a security van that was loading the hold of a Switzerland-bound plane.
The armed and masked men used two vehicles in their raid on Monday evening and within minutes made their way to the plane, took the cache of gems and drove off into the darkness, said the Brussels prosecutor. The raid at Brussels airport happened just before 8pm on Monday. The heavily armed men drove through the airport security fence in two vehicles, a Mercedes van and a car, and made straight for a Brink's delivery van. The staff were loading safes full of diamonds on to a Swiss plane bound for Zurich. The gunmen quickly filled their vehicles with the boxes and fled through the same broken security barrier. No shots were fired. A burned-out van was later found nearby. The raid lasted just three minutes. The exact value of brute diamonds, believed to hail from Antwerp, was uncertain, but estimates put it at £30m ($50m). "What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum," Caroline De Wolf of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre told the Belgian VRT network.
Police found a burnt-out vehicle close to the airport on Monday night but said they were still looking for clues. An airport spokesman, Jan Van Der Crujsse, said the gunmen made a hole in the perimeter fence, and drove right up to the Swiss plane, which was ready to leave. The men flashed their weapons and took the boxes of jewels from the hold.
The heist is estimated at some £30m ($50m) in diamonds, said Caroline De Wolf of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.
"What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum," De Wolf told Belgian state broadcaster VRT.
An airport spokesperson said the robbers made a hole in the perimeter fence, and drove right up to the Swiss passenger plane, which was ready to leave. The robbers got out of the car, flashed their weapons and took the loot from the hold, said spokesman Jan Van Der Crujsse. Without firing a shot they drove off through the same hole in the fence, completing the theft within minutes, he said.
Van Der Crujsse could not explain how the area could be so vulnerable to theft. "We abide by the most stringent rules," he said.Van Der Crujsse could not explain how the area could be so vulnerable to theft. "We abide by the most stringent rules," he said.
The Swiss flight, operated by Helvetic Airways, was cancelled after the robbery. The insurance for air transport, handled sometimes by airlines themselves or external insurance companies, is usually relatively cheap because it's considered to be the safest way of transporting small high-value items, logistics experts say. The Swiss flight, operated by Helvetic Airways, was cancelled. Swiss, an affiliate of Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG, declined to comment on the heist, citing the ongoing judicial investigation.
The insurance for air transport, handled sometimes by airlines themselves or external insurance companies, is usually relatively cheap, because it's considered to be the safest way of transporting small high-value items, logistics experts say.
A decade ago, Antwerp, the world capital of diamond-cutting, was the scene of what was probably one of the biggest diamond heists in history, when robbers took precious stones, jewels and gold from the high-security vaults at Antwerp's Diamond Centre in 2003. Police stsimated the haul at £64m.
The Diamond Centre stands in the heart of the high-surveillance diamond district where police and dozens of cameras work around the clock, and where security has been beefed up further since the spectacular 2003 robbery.