Armed men made off with a shipment of diamonds worth around $50 million as it was being loaded onto a plane at the Brussels airport late on Monday.
The diamonds stolen were worth around $50 million, Antwerp World Diamond Centre spokeswoman Caroline De Wolf said. Earlier the broadcaster VRT said, citing unnamed sources, that 10 kilograms of diamonds with a value of 350 million euros ($467 million) were stolen during the heist.
The thieves broke through a fence at the Belgian capital’s main airport with two vehicles at 7:47 pm the airport said in a statement.
“The men in the car rode to a Swiss airplane where they stole valuable goods,” it said. “There was no shooting, and no one got injured. This lasted only a few minutes, and after that, they left the airport domain through the damaged fence.” The thieves targeted a van from the Brink’s security company that was loading the diamonds on a plane bound for Zurich, media reports said.
A burned vehicle was later found on the outskirts of Brussels with police investigating whether it was one of the getaway cars, VRT reported.
