Diamonds worth $50m stolen at Belgium airport

Reports say the robbers were dressed as police and armed with machineguns [Reuters]

Police are hunting for a gang who pulled off one of the largest ever diamonds robberies at Brussels airport after driving onto the runway and hitting a security truck. Gems worth $50m were being loaded onto a Swiss aircraft bound for Zurich when the heavily armed robbers drove through barriers onto the tarmac to get airside. Reports said no shots were fired and nobody was injured during the heist, which was completed within minutes. A burnt out van was found later nearby. The gems taken "included rough stones as well as cut diamonds from Antwerp that were being transported to Zurich," said Caroline De Wolf, a spokeswoman from Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC). The robbery, thought to have been committed by eight people, was "one of the biggest ever" said De Wolf, but gave no details as to who the shipment belonged to. According to the AWDC, the global diamond business is worth more than $60bn each year, with about $200m worth of stones moving in and out of Antwerp every day.

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