Six Individuals Detained After 12 Million Euro Robbery on Gold Processing Laboratory in the French Republic

Six armed perpetrators equipped with high-powered firearms detonated charges to force entry into a gold refining laboratory located in Lyon, France, causing light wounds to five employees during what is being called the latest high-profile daytime heist to hit the country.

The bold operation took place on the afternoon of Thursday, with officers quickly arresting the alleged criminals and retrieving the loot assessed at around €12 million (10.5 million pounds), officials reported.

Five staff members of the precious metals facility received light wounds due to the explosion, and three of them were transported to hospital for examination, according to regional authorities. A total of twenty-eight staff were at the location when the perpetrators raided.

Those arrested, considered experienced criminals, were detained a brief time later in the adjacent municipality of the town of Vénissieux, a source close to the investigation stated.

A female accomplice involved in the raid was also apprehended, officers confirmed.

“Six suspects who used detonations in an assault targeting a metals processing plant in Lyon were arrested at the scene,” the nation's interior minister stated online, commending law enforcement for their “decisiveness, speed and control”.

High-caliber firearms, handguns and detonation devices were recovered as well.

The heist took place as law enforcement in France on the same day apprehended five additional individuals, among them a key figure, in relation to this month's brazen raid on the Louvre museum.

Dozens of investigators have been searching for four robbers who employed a truck with a hydraulic lift and cutting equipment to breach a first-floor gallery at the renowned museum on October 19th, fleeing with jewelry valued at approximately 88 million euros.

In a different significant robbery, robbers the previous month forced their way into the Natural History Museum in Paris, taking gold specimens estimated at exceeding $1M. A 24-year-old Chinese woman was taken into custody recently in the city of Barcelona in regarding the theft, according to legal authorities.

The sequence of heists has generated apprehension in the nation regarding lax security at museums and other institutions holding high-value objects.