$50m of diamonds stolen in 'under five minutes'

An airport official tells how eight masked gunmen broke into Brussels' international airport and snatched millions of pounds worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane.

Robbers dressed as police and armed with machine guns have stolen 120 parcels of diamonds worth millions of dollars from the runway of Brussels Airport in one of the biggest heists the industry has seen.

A van belonging to security firm Brinks, which had just finished loading the diamonds into a Swiss passenger plane, was held up by eight men on Monday evening.

According to a spokesman for the airport, the robbers were masked but also wore police uniforms. He said the men drove up in two vehicles after cutting through the airport perimetre fence.

The entire heist took less than five minutes and not a shot was fired. The robbers escaped and are now being hunted by police.

Prosecutors said they could not yet comment on how much the diamonds taken were worth or to whom they belonged.

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