Thieves who made away with millions of dollars worth of jewelery in a daring broad daylight robbery at the Louvre Museum on Sunday left behind several DNA samples.
Investigators found “more than 150 pieces of DNA, fingerprints and other traces” at the scene, Paris prosecutor Laure Becuau told French news site Ouest-France On Thursday.
Becuau said these came from a helmet, angle grinder, gloves, a vest and other items used and discarded by the four thieves.
He said, “Analyses take time, even though they are a priority for laboratories. We are expecting results in the next few days, which may provide us with clues, especially if culprits were on file.”
The hooded and masked thief climbed an extendable ladder onto the Louvre balcony on Sunday and broke into the first-floor Apollo Gallery, home to France’s remaining crown jewels.
They seized eight pieces of jewelery belonging to French queens and empresses, worth an estimated €88 million ($102 million).
Louvre thieves reportedly botched initial attempt to open display case
But the thieves initially failed to open the jewelery display cases with the angle grinder, Le Parisien news site reported this on WednesdayCiting museum surveillance footage.
The newspaper said the criminals eventually managed to break small holes in the boxes with other tools and pull out the jewels by hand.
According to Le Parisien, CCTV footage also shows that the internal alarm system worked perfectly and immediately.
The first alarm was raised at 9:34 a.m. Sunday (0734 GMT) when thieves used a power tool to destroy the window of the balcony door.
Le Parisien said two museum staff tried to drive away the thieves before they broke into the display cases, the footage shows. But in the footage the staff were apparently retreating out of fear that the thieves were armed.
Shortcomings in CCTV coverage of the Louvre’s external walls
The Louvre’s director, Laurence des Cars, admitted on Wednesday that thieves had taken advantage of a blind spot in security monitoring to break into the museum’s exterior walls.
Speaking to the French Senate, Des Cars said she would push to install a police station inside the Louvre and to restrict parking around the Louvre, preventing vehicles from parking right next to the museum.
He also promised to upgrade the CCTV network of the world’s most visited museum.
Despite the CCTV failure at the museum, prosecutor Becuau said Thursday that public and private security cameras elsewhere had allowed detectives to track the thieves “in Paris and surrounding areas.”
He said he hoped that, because of all the media attention on the robbery, “the robbers wouldn’t really dare move on with the jewels.” “I want to stay optimistic,” she said.
Edited by: Roshni Majumdar