Cunning gem thieves plague Paris

Paris jewellers want more police protection

Parisian jewellers are demanding more police protection after ingenious jewel thieves stole millions of euros worth of precious stones in a string of daring raids.

It's not just that the robberies are on the increase but also that the raids are becoming much more violent - employees are getting caught in the middle

Carole Grouesy
Jewellers' Federation

This week, robbers broke into the National Gemmological Institute and cleaned out the main safe - taking stones of a value as yet impossible to estimate.

It is thought that they tampered with the video system in the building, where gems from around the world are examined and verified by experts.

In keeping with the traditional-style jewellery raid, they operated in the middle of the night. Teams of more audacious thieves have recently been carrying out robberies on jewellery stores in broad daylight.

"We're seeing two things," police spokesman Hugo Mahboubi told BBC News Online. "Firstly that the number of attacks is on the increase, and secondly that thieves are prepared to use more daring ways to get what they want."

Hoovers and teargas

Earlier this month, thieves used a vacuum cleaner to quickly suck up jewellery after breaking a shop window in broad daylight. They then made off with their booty on motorbikes.

Elsewhere in the city this month, robbers entered an exclusive jewellery shop with a canister of teargas hidden in a bunch of flowers. One sprayed the employees while the other picked up the gems.

Chirac's party came to power pledging to cut crime

Others have stuck with the more traditional heists. Robbers recently held up a Paris shop with a machine gun and made away with a haul of expensive watches.

"It's a real worry for us," said Carole Grouesy of the National Federation of Watchmakers and Jewellers. "It's not just that the robberies are on the increase but also that the raids are becoming much more violent - employees are getting caught in the middle."

Police want to see greater security at jewellers - including more cameras and time delay doors. "We'd like them to look a bit more like banks," said Mr Mahboubi.

But the jewellers themselves are unhappy with the bank look, and want more from the police.

"We are shops - and need to look like shops not security centres," Ms Grouesy told BBC News Online. Obviously we can do more but we also need the help of the police."

Once the jewels have been stolen it is unlikely they will be recovered, police say. Many are stolen to order, while the rest quickly disappear onto illegal foreign markets.

President Jacques Chirac's right-wing government came to power this month after campaigning on a law and order platform, pledging to increase public expenditure on new regional task forces and security services.

While jewellery raids are up on last year's figures for the same period, correspondents say that they remain comparable with other big European cities.

But after an election campaign which promised to be tough on crime, French jewellers are looking to the government to deliver on its pledges.