Sawt Falasteen - Two suspects arrested in Louvre jewel heist

A hundred investigators had been mobilised to track down the thieves who robbed the world-renowned museum in broad daylight on October 19, making off with jewellery worth an estimated $102 million in just a few minutes.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said they had "carried out arrests on Saturday evening", after two sources close to the case had confirmed to AFP local media reports of the detentions.

"One of the men arrested was about to leave the country" from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport Beccuau said, confirming reports by Le Parisien and Paris Match.

One of the sources told AFP the man was about to board a plane for Algeria.

The second man had been detained not long afterward in the Paris region, the media reports said.

The two men were taken into police custody on suspicion of organised theft and criminal conspiracy.

During the heist, robbers clambered up the extendable ladder of a stolen movers' truck and, using cutting equipment, broke into a first-floor gallery.

They dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown as they fled down the ladder and onto scooters, but managed to steal eight other pieces, include an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise.

The brazen theft has made headlines across the world and sparked a debate in France about the security of cultural institutions.

The Louvre's director has admitted the robbers had taken advantage of a blind spot in the security surveillance of the museum's outside walls.

But Beccuau said public and private security cameras elsewhere had allowed detectives to track the thieves "in Paris and in surrounding regions".

Investigators were also able to find dozens of DNA samples and fingerprints at the scene.

The Louvre theft is the latest in a string of robberies targeting French museums.

Less than 24 hours after the Louvre break-in, a museum in eastern France reported the theft of gold and silver coins after finding a smashed display case.

Last month, criminals broke into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold nuggets worth more than $1.5 million. A Chinese woman has been detained and charged with involvement in the theft.

R.Halabi--SF-PST