Two suspects have been arrested over the theft of precious crown jewels from Paris's Louvre museum, French media say.
The Paris prosecutor's office reported that one of the men was taken into custody while preparing for a flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Jewels valued at €88 million (£76 million; $102 million) were stolen from the world's most-visited museum last Sunday, when four armed thieves broke into the building in broad daylight.
France's justice minister acknowledged that security protocols failed, leaving the country with a terrible image.
The prosecutor's office stated that the arrests occurred on Saturday evening, but did not specify how many people were in custody. Reports indicate that one suspect was planning to flee to Algeria, while another was headed to Mali.
Police sources indicated that DNA collected from the robbery scene pinpointed one of the suspects. The thieves left behind gloves and a high-visibility jacket during their escape.
Among the items taken was a crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, spouse of Napoleon III.
The prosecutor criticized the premature disclosure of case details, suggesting it complicated efforts to recover the jewels and track down the thieves.
The robbery took place shortly after the museum opened to visitors at 09:30 (08:30 GMT). The suspects utilized a vehicle-mounted mechanical lift to access the Galerie d'Apollon through a balcony adjacent to the River Seine.
Visual evidence indicated that the thieves cut through a window and threatened guards, prompting an evacuation before smashing display cases containing the jewels.
A preliminary investigation revealed that one in three rooms in the theft area were without CCTV coverage. French police noted that the thieves entered the museum for roughly four minutes and fled on two scooters.
Laurence des Cars, the museum's director, acknowledged that the only exterior camera monitoring the break-in site was focused away from the first-floor balcony used by the intruders. Overall, the surveillance system was deemed inadequate and outdated.
Security around France's cultural institutions has since been reinforced, with the Louvre transferring some of its most valuable jewels to the Bank of France for secure storage.
Experts have raised concerns that the stolen jewels may have been disassembled for easier resale, with gold and silver easily melted down and gems cut into smaller stones, complicating recovery efforts.
