Guests at the Ritz Hotel in Paris were forced to hide in the kitchens when five masked men armed with axes and knives carried out a smash and grab raid of the hotel’s glass display cabinets, getting away with around €4.5 million of jewels.
Other guests cowered on the floor of the hotel’s Hemingway bar during the raid, which happened around 6.30pm yesterday.
French police on patrol outside the luxury hotel caught three of the robbers after tasering them as they fled, but two escaped through a back door and got away on mopeds.
Witnesses said at least 10 shots were fired, and there are unconfirmed reports that one hotel employee was injured but this was denied by police.
The hotel, located near the Place Vendome, is owned by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of Dodi Al Fayed who died in a car crash with Diana, Princess of Wales, shortly after the pair left the hotel in August 1997.
