Volkswacht Bodensee - Power tool-wielding robbers flee Louvre with 'priceless' jewellery

The theft -- just the latest to have targeted a French institution in recent months -- saw the museum, the world's most visited and filled with treasures including the Mona Lisa, shut its doors for the day to the busy weekend crowds.

AFP saw a police forensics team arrive and go into the museum, while uniformed soldiers with automatic rifles patrolled the Louvre's famed esplanade, which was cleared of all visitors. Roads around the museum were closed off with police tape.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said three of four thieves had used the furniture hoist to steal "priceless" goods from the museum's "Gallerie d'Apollon" ("Apollo's Gallery").

It was not immediately clear what exactly they had stolen from the gilded gallery, which the museum's website says is home to the French crown jewels.

They include three historical diamonds -- the Regent, the Sancy and the Hortensia -- as well as an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife Empress Marie-Louise, it said.

The thieves arrived between 9:30 and 9:40 am (0730 and 0740 GMT) for their robbery, a source following the case said.

A separate police source said the robbers had drawn up on a scooter armed with angle grinders and used the hoist to reach the room they were targeting.

The brazen robbery happened just 800 metres (yards) from Paris police headquarters.

France's Culture Minister Rachida Dati earlier on Sunday reported a "robbery" at the museum and said "no injuries" had been reported.

The Louvre said on X it was closing its doors for the day "for exceptional reasons".

But contacted by AFP, it did not wish to immediately provide further comment.

The Paris prosecutor's office said it had opened an investigation and the value of the loot was still being estimated.

- Series of heists -

The seat of French kings until Louis XIV abandoned it for Versailles in the late 1600s, the Louvre is regularly listed as the world's most visited museum.

The exhibition venue welcomed nine million visitors last year.

Louis XIV commissioned the "Gallerie d'Apollon" himself. It later served as a model for the Hall of Mirrors at the Chateau de Versailles.

Several French museum have recently been targeted.

Last month, thieves broke into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold samples worth 600,000 euros ($700,000).

They used an angle grinder and a blow torch to steal the native gold, a metal alloy containing gold and silver in their natural unrefined form.

They snuck into the Cognacq-Jay museum wearing gloves, hoods and helmets, striking in full view of other visitors to the museum.

French President Emmanuel Macron in January pledged the Louvre would be "redesigned, restored and enlarged" after its director voiced alarm about dire conditions inside.

He said he hoped that the works could help increase the annual number of visitors to 12 million.

P.Keller--VB