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Paris thieves steal jewels 'worth 5 mln euros' from Taiwanese art dealer

The robbers smashed the windows of the art collector's taxi in a motorway tunnel near Paris during a traffic jam, running off with a handbag.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

French police are searching for three thieves who stole a handbag containing 5 million euros (£3.6m; $5.4m) worth of jewels in a daring Paris raid, reports BBC News.

The owner of the handbag, a Taiwanese art collector, was stuck in traffic in a tunnel when the thieves smashed her car window.

It was not clear whether it was a targeted attack or if the thieves simply got lucky.

The 1.3km (0.8 mile) long Landy Tunnel is notorious for smash-and-grab thefts.

Some reports suggested the jewellery collection, which included a ring worth 1.7 million euros, was due to be donated to the Paris Museum of Modern Art, but the museum later denied the claim.

The unique and numbered items would be very difficult to sell on without a specialised network, a police source told France's AFP news agency.

The source said thefts in the Landy tunnel are often the work of petty crooks.

"They aren't afraid of anything, know the area and escape through emergency exits," it added.

Read more of this report from BBC News.