French authorities arrested suspects on Saturday in the daylight theft of eight crown-jewel pieces from the Louvre, the Paris prosecutor said on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports.
One suspect was detained at Charles de Gaulle airport as he prepared to leave the country, prosecutor Laure Beccuau said, without specifying the number arrested or giving details of their profiles. She condemned leaks about the operation, saying they risked undermining efforts by roughly 100 investigators to recover the jewels and identify all those involved.
Le Parisien, which first reported the arrests, said two men in their 30s from Seine-Saint-Denis, both known to police, were taken into custody on Saturday evening. The paper said one planned to fly to Algeria. The prosecutor did not confirm those details.
Thieves on Oct. 19 used a crane to smash an upstairs window during opening hours and fled on motorbikes with eight precious items worth an estimated $102 million, a robbery that ignited debate over security at the world’s most-visited museum.