An armed gang burst into one of the swankiest hotels in Paris on Wednesday night, seizing jewellery and clothing worth at least €350,000 (£300,000; $390,000), reports say.
Two masked attackers took part in the raid on the historic Peninsula Hotel, a stone’s throw from the Arc de Triomphe.
One held up staff while the other used an axe to break the glass in three cases where the jewels and clothing were on display.
No-one was hurt and the burglars fled.
A third member of the gang was waiting in a getaway car, which was found on a road half an hour later completely destroyed by fire, French news website Le Point reported.
Hotels in Paris and other major French cities have been targeted before.
Jewels worth €4.5m were stolen from a shop at the Ritz last year, although they were later recovered. In 2013, an armed man stole jewels worth €40m from an exhibition at a hotel in Cannes.
The luxury Peninsula Hotel, on the Avenue Kléber in Paris’s 16th district, dates back over 100 years. Earlier this year it featured a Louis Vuitton installation in its lobby.
It hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping and his entourage during a visit last week.
Formerly known as the Majestic, it was seized by occupying German forces in World War Two and used as their military command headquarters.
Source: bbc.co.uk
