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Saudi prince robbed in Paris after motorcade held at gunpoint Saudi prince's motorcade held up at gunpoint in Paris
(about 5 hours later)
Heavily armed gunmen stole thousands of pounds in an attack on a convoy of diplomatic vehicles belonging to a Saudi prince in the north of Paris on Sunday evening, French police have reported. French detectives are investigating whether a group of heavily armed gunmen who attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying a Saudi prince and his entourage in the north of Paris wanted money or important diplomatic documents.
The motorcade was heading through the French capital on its way to Le Bourget airport on Boulevard Périphérique, the city's ring road. The attackers, who police said were clearly well informed, struck on Sunday evening after the motorcade of a dozen vehicles left the luxurious George V hotel on the Champs Elysées and headed to Le Bourget airport, nine miles (15km) north of the French capital.
The eight attackers, who witnesses said were armed with Kalashnikovs and were in two vehicles, forced the convoy to stop around 9pm near Porte de la Chapelle, one of the main routes in and out of the city. As the convoy arrived at Porte de la Chapelle, which leads to the péripherique ring road, the attackers – who were travelling in two BMWs without number plates – forced the Saudis' cars to stop, and went straight to one of the vehicles, a Mercedes people carrier.
They stole €250,000 (£200,000) and what were described as "sensitive documents" belonging to the Saudi embassy before hijacking one of the vehicles, a Mercedes people carrier, and taking its three occupants hostage. The robbers, said to number between five and eight, seized the Mercedes and its three occupants – as well as €250,000 and what Le Parisien newspaper described as sensitive documents.
Soon afterwards the robbers released the three and abandoned the vehicle, which was later found burned out. Police said no shots were fired and nobody in the convoy was injured. Soon afterwards the robbers released the hostages and abandoned the vehicle, which was found an hour later in Saint-Mesmes, a village in the Ile-de-France region north-east of Paris, along with one of the BMWs. Both vehicles were burnt out.
"It's an unusual robbery. Clearly [the robbers] were informed, but it's still quite a rare type of attack," a police source told Le Monde. Some reports suggested the robbers were carrying handguns, others that they were armed with Kalashnikovs, but detectives said no shots were fired and no one in the convoy was hurt. Two €500 notes, documents in Arabic and some medical drugs were said to have been found near the wreckage.
Police from the force's organised crime division investigating the heist have not named the Saudi prince and the Saudi embassy has declined to comment on the attack. Rocco Contento, of the SGP police union, said the documents came from the Saudi embassy in Paris. "It was clearly an ambush by a commando group that was well-informed, particularly of the time the vehicles would be passing," he told French television.
Romain Nadal, spokesperson for the French foreign ministry, called the attack unacceptable. Police have not named the Saudi prince involved, and the Saudi embassy has declined to comment.
Nicolas Comte, secretary general of the main police union, Unité-SGP, described the attack as strange and unusual. He told AFP: "We have to establish whether it was the money or documents that were targeted. We also have to hope that the Saudi authorities will cooperate with the investigation."
One detective added: "If they were seeking sensitive information, the nature of the robbery changes. We're no longer faced with organised bandits, but something more complicated."
He said the first elements of the inquiry suggested the robbers were "quite expert … and aware of what they would find by attacking this one vehicle [the Mercedes] and not the others".
The George V hotel from which the convoy departed is owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud, a nephew of King Abdullah. It is not known whether he was in the convoy.
He was listed as among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2008. He is founder and 95% owner of Kingdom Holding Company, which has investments in banking, financial services and hotels, media, aviation and property.
He is also Citigroup's largest individual shareholder and the second largest voting shareholder in News Corporation. Last year he was listed as the 26th richest man in the world by Forbes magazine, with an estimated $26bn fortune.