French authorities have found a crucial clue in what has become a sensational event in the country in recent years, when thieves stole eight pieces of jewellery worth $102 million owned by the French queens and empresses.
According to investigators, the thieves who pulled off one of the daring heists at the Louvre museum on Sunday left behind numerous DNA samples. Investigators so far found "more than 150 DNA, fingerprint and other traces" at the scene, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Thursday evening.
The crucial clues came from a helmet, an angle grinder, gloves, a vest and other belongings used and abandoned by the four burglars, she added. “The authorities are conducting the necessary investigation, and related formalities take time,” she noted, adding that samples remain a priority for the labs. It is expected that the final result might arrive in the next few days,” she added.
The masked burglars used an extendable ladder onto a Louvre balcony on Sunday and broke into the first-floor Apollo Gallery, home to France's remaining crown jewels.
The thieves failed to loot the items kept in the open balcony, which were later used to open the jewellery display cases, with angle grinders, as shown in the museum surveillance footage. The Louvre's director, Laurence des Cars, on Wednesday admitted that the thieves had taken advantage of a blind spot in the security surveillance to scale the museum's outside walls.
Speaking to the French Senate, des Cars said she would push for a police station to be set up inside the Louvre and restrict parking around the Louvre to stop vehicles from parking directly next to the museum.
The burglars involved in the heist have not yet been apprehended.
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