As detectives hunt those who raided around 70 safety deposit boxes in London - potentially making off with millions of pounds of diamonds - we look at some of the most notorious European heists of recent years.
:: Carlton Hotel, Cannes - £88m, July 2013
A lone gunman enters the hotel in the luxury French resort in broad daylight and less than a minute later escapes on foot with a suitcase full of jewels that were on show in the lobby.
The stash included pink and yellow diamonds, emeralds and sapphires.
The Carlton Hotel robber fled on foot after snatching jewels in the lobby
It is one of many robberies blamed on the "Pink Panther" gang, who Interpol say have snatched jewels worth more than £280m since 1999.
The gang is thought to be a loosely-affiliated group of several hundred criminals from the former Yugoslavia.
:: Cannes Film Festival - £2m, May 2013
Thieves make off with a £1.7m necklace during a celebrity party attended by the likes of Sharon Stone and Paris Hilton.
A week earlier, £660,000 of Chopard jewels had also been stolen when a safe was ripped from a hotel wall.
:: Brussels Airport - £30m, February 2013
Dressed as police and armed with machine guns, eight men cut through fences and hold up a plane packed with 120 boxes of uncut diamonds.
Antwerp in Belgium is the centre of the world diamond trade
Some of the robbers stand in front of the aircraft with their laser sights pointing at the pilots.
Passengers waiting to take off have no idea the robbery is taking place - it lasts barely 10 minutes.
Thirty-three people were arrested in connection with the robbery in May 2013.
:: Diarsa, Madrid - £19.5m, December 2012
The gang - whose ringleader was known as The Troll - use laser equipment to break into a distribution centre where they crack open safes and scoop up more than 1,700 luxury watches.
No alarms are triggered and they later try to sell the loot on the Chinese black market.
Seventeen of the group were eventually arrested after some of them splashed out on luxury holidays and yacht hire.
:: Graff jewellers, London - £40m, August 2009
Wearing make-up and suits to pose as legitimate customers, the gang carries out Britain's biggest jewellery raid in just two minutes.
Two of the Graff gang: Aman Kassaye and Thomas Thomas
Once inside the Mayfair store they pull guns on unsuspecting staff.
The group's ringleader takes a shop assistant hostage and fires at a security guard as he makes his escape.
Police eventually tracked down the gang of four and they were jailed for up to 23 years.
:: Harry Winston jewellers, Paris - £74m, December 2008
With some of the gang dressed as women and wearing wigs, the exclusive Champs-Elysees store is stripped of rings, necklaces and watches.
The window display and back room storage are both cleaned out as it is raided for the second time in a year.
Loot from Harry Winston's was later found in a Paris drain
Several employees are coshed over the head with handguns as robbers refer to them by name.
Millions of pounds of the loot was found in a drain in a Paris suburb in 2011, but most remains missing.
Eight men were finally jailed for the robbery this year.
:: Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam - £76m, February 2005
Thought to be the biggest diamond heist ever, two men in stolen KLM airline uniforms hijack a truck laden with uncut diamonds on the airport tarmac.
The drivers are forced out at gunpoint and made to lie on the ground before the pair speed off.
The vehicle was later found abandoned but the diamonds and suspects were long gone - the crime is still unsolved but police suspect an inside job.
:: Antwerp Diamond Centre, Belgium - £70m, February 2003
An Italian group known as the The School of Turin pulls off a diamond robbery said to be four years in the planning and described as the "heist of the century".
The haul was so large the gang could not carry all the stones and left the floor littered with jewels.
No alarms were tripped, despite security including infrared heat detectors, a seismic detector and a lock with more than 100 million combinations.
Guards did not realise until the following day.
A half-eaten sandwich discarded during the getaway provided DNA evidence that led to the group's ringleader - but the fate of the diamonds remains a mystery.
:: O2, London - £350m, November 2000 - The foiled plot
The gang barge through gates using a JCB digger and let off smoke bombs as they try to smash display cases with sledgehammers and a nail gun.
Police were tipped off about the daring 02 arena attempt
Their target was a collection of 12 diamonds, including De Beers' flawless 203-carat Millennium Star stone.
It could have been the world's biggest robbery but police were tipped off about the audacious plan and had swapped the jewels with imitations.
Armed police disguised as cleaners helped round up the gang, who were planning to make their getaway on the River Thames on a speedboat.
