Thieves hijacked two trucks carrying $9.5 million in jewels on a French highway
No one was injured in the attack on the A6 highway connecting Paris and Lyon, and the drivers of the two vans were left at the scene unharmed, a police official said.
The perpetrators escaped in four cars and the two vans, which police found burned and abandoned in a forest near the site of the attack, the official said. The jewels remain missing.
In November, two gunmen robbed a Cartier jewelry boutique in a tony and tourist-filled Paris neighborhood, fled police in a chase across the Seine River, took a hostage - and then surrendered.
In 2013, the Cannes Film Festival was hit by two high-profile thefts. First, a gunman walked into a jewel show at the Carlton International Hotel, stole $136 million in loot, and disappeared down a side street. Then, two armed men made off with a haul of luxury watches on the same promenade.
Last month, eight people were convicted in connection with one of the most spectacular jewel thefts in recent French history at a Harry Winston boutique in Paris. In the 2008 hold-up, three cross-dressing gunmen stole about $92 million in goods.