AFP, AP, THE INDEPENDENT (UK)

Worldcrunch

BRUSSELS – Belgium police on Tuesday were looking for eight armed robbers who pulled off a spectacular heist at Brussels airport, making off with tens of millions of euros worth of diamonds.

The men cut a whole in a perimeter security fence, drove onto the tarmac and attacked a Brink’s security truck as it was loading millions of euros worth of gold and diamonds onto a Swiss Helvetic Airways flight bound for Zurich, reports the AP.

First reports estimated the heist to be worth a whopping 350 million euros ($450 million) but the amount was later revised to 50 million euros.

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Zaventem Brussels Airport, Wikipedia

In a statement Brussels airport said: “The men in the car rode to a Swiss airplane where they stole valuable goods,” reports the Independent. “There was no shooting, and no one got injured. This lasted only a few minutes, and after that, they left the airport domain through the damaged fence.”

A burnt out vehicle was later discovered near the airport, police said.

This could be one of the biggest diamond heists of all time, reports the AFP.

According to a spokesperson from the Antwerp World Diamond Center, the diamonds were “rough stones” being transported from Antwerp to Zurich.

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