Armed robbers flee Paris De Beers store on motorcycles after jewellery heist

BREAKING: Armed robbers flee a De Beers store near Place Vendôme in central Paris on motorcycles after a gunpoint heist, making off with hundreds of thousands of euros in luxury goods. Police are hunting four suspects.

Four armed robbers hit the De Beers store in central Paris this morning.

It happened at 11:15 local time on Rue de la Paix, right by Place Vendôme, the heart of the city's luxury jewellery district. The suspects arrived dressed in black, wearing helmets, and a police union official at the scene said they were carrying assault-style rifles. Within minutes they had taken hundreds of thousands of euros in goods and sped off on motorcycles. You can see the scene here, an officer standing guard outside the shuttered store.

Police say weapons were shown but never fired, and nobody was hurt. De Beers has closed the store while investigators work, and the exact value of what was taken is still being counted.

This comes just weeks after thieves took around four million euros in jewellery from a French museum, and the Louvre is still rolling out new surveillance after the crown jewels heist. Four suspects are still out there, and so far Paris has no names.

This is Dave King, reporting for HIT.