Brazen French motorway heist nets EUR 9m jewellery haul

(AVALLON) - A group of "battle-hardened" armed thieves attacked two secure vans carrying jewels at a French motorway toll in the dead of night, making off with a haul worth some nine million euros ($11 million), police said Wednesday.

The heist took place around midnight on a motorway in the Yonne district some 200 kilometres (125 miles) southeast of Paris, and police, backed by air support, are searching within a large perimeter around the area.

A police source, who wished to remain anonymous, said there were around 15 robbers, all "heavily armed and battle-hardened."

No one was hurt in the holdup and the Avallon toll booth itself was not damaged, prosecutors and the firm managing the motorway said, suggesting the raid was done by professionals.

"They are probably men who stem from organised crime and who are well informed. There were no shots fired and everything happened at lightning speed," a police source said.

The large vans, which were transporting jewels for a planned sale in the eastern city of Besancon, were found burnt and abandoned not far from the toll station. One of them was completely ripped apart.

Other vehicles that could have belonged to the robbers were found in the nearby village of Quenne.

It was as yet unclear exactly how the assault unfolded.

- Heists becoming rare -

Attacks on special vehicles carrying jewels or cash often require equipment such as explosives or assault rifles, and while they occurred regularly at the beginning of the 2000s in France, they have dwindled in recent years.

The last major such heist was in 2009 when armoured van driver Toni Musulin escaped with his vehicle after two of his colleagues stepped away, making off with at least 11.5 million euros in cash collected from a Bank of France building.

Musulin became an overnight Internet sensation at a time when the super-rich were resented during the financial crisis.

Investigators soon found packets of cash totalling 9.11 million euros in a lock-up garage in the southeastern city of Lyon near where the abandoned van was found, and after some 10 days on the run, Musulin gave himself in.

The rest of the cash was never found.

When it comes to jewellery, the country's most spectacular heist was a double robbery at a Harry Winston shop in an upmarket part of Paris in 2007 and 2008.

In the first holdup in October 2007, four masked gunmen wearing decorators' overalls robbed the store.

The thieves had spent the night in the jewellery shop with the help of a security guard at the store, who let them in the previous evening.

The robbers made off with 120 watches and 360 pieces of jewellery worth more than 32 million euros.

Then just over a year later, in December 2008, four men -- including three wearing women's clothes and wigs -- entered the same store, again with the help of the guard.

In less than 20 minutes, they took 104 watches and 297 pieces of jewellery worth 71 million euros and fled in a car.

Last month, eight men were sentenced to up to 15 years in jail for their role in the double heist.