Suspects arrested over theft of jewels, prosecutor says

Two suspects have been arrested on suspicion of stealing precious crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris, according to French media.

Paris prosecutors said one of the men was taken into custody as he prepared to take off from Charles de Gaulle airport.

Items worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were stolen from the world's most visited museum last Sunday when four thieves armed with power tools broke into the building in broad daylight.

France's justice minister has admitted that security protocols have “failed”, leaving the country with a “terrible image”.

The Paris prosecutor's office said in a statement that the arrests were made on Saturday evening, without specifying how many people were taken into custody.

Police sources told French media that one of the suspects was preparing to travel to Algeria, although the other was believed to be heading to Mali.

Specialized police can detain and interrogate them for up to 96 hours.

DNA found at the robbery scene has identified one of the suspects, French media reported Sunday.

The gang left behind a number of items, including gloves and a high-vis jacket.

It was previously reported that they dropped the crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III.

The Paris prosecutor criticized the “premature release” of information related to the case, adding that it was hampering efforts to recover the jewelry and find the thieves.

The thieves were reported to have arrived at 09:30 (0830 GMT), shortly after the museum opened to visitors.

Suspects arrived with a mechanical lift installed on the car access the Galerie d'Apollo (Apollo Gallery) through a balcony close to the Seine River.

Footage from the scene shows a staircase leading to a first-floor window.

Two thieves entered by cutting through the window with power tools.

They then threatened the guards, who left the premises, and broke the glass of two display cases containing jewelry.

According to French media, a preliminary report showed that one in three rooms in the area where the raid was carried out did not have CCTV cameras.

French police say the thieves were inside for four minutes and fled on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38.

museum director told French senators this week that the only camera monitoring the outer wall of the Louvre, which they had broken into, was pointed away from the first floor balcony leading to the Apollo Gallery.

The perimeter CCTV system was also weak and “aging”, meaning officers were unable to detect the gang early enough to stop the theft, Lawrence de Cars said.

Experts also expressed concern that the jewelry may have already been broken into hundreds of pieces.

Gold and silver can be melted down and gems cut into smaller stones that are virtually impossible to trace back to the heist, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told the BBC.

Since then, security measures around French cultural institutions have been tightened.

Following the robbery, the Louvre handed over some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France. They will now be kept in the Bank's most secure vault, 26 meters (85 feet) below the ground floor of its elegant headquarters in central Paris.