Police are on the hunt for eight men who were involved in a huge diamond heist at Brussels' international airport on Monday.
The men were armed and masked when they cut a hole into the security fence of the airport, drove onto the tarmac and stole tens of millions of dollars worth of diamonds from a plane that was heading to Switzerland, the Associated Press reports.
The men used two vehicles during their raid.They were able to access the Helvetic Airways Fokker 100 jet plane within minutes and get away with the jewels during the night.
Police may have found one of the vehicles completely burned near the airport on Monday night but they're still looking for more clues.
It is estimated that the men got away with 50 million dollars worth of diamonds.
"What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum," Caroline De Wolf of the Antwerp World diamond Centre said according to the Associated Press.
According to an airport spokesman, the thieves managed to make a hole in the fence and drove right up to the Swiss plane that was getting ready to leave.
The robbers got out of their vehicles and flashed their weapons. They then stole the diamonds from the hold. The men never fired their weapons. After the heist, they drove right through the same hole in the fence.
Airport spokesman Jan Van Der Crujsse didn't know how the airport could be raided so easily.
"We abide by the most stringent rules," he told AP.
The flight was cancelled after the robbery. The thieves likely had significant help from insiders. This was the first theft at the airport since 2002.
Insurance for air transport is relatively cheap since it is considered to be a safe way of transporting expensive items since a plane cannot be attacked by robber once it takes flight.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
