In a spectacular robbery at the luxury jeweller Bulgari in Rome overnight a gang of burglars made off with more than €500,000 ($540,000) worth of goods.
The perpetrators broke into a branch of the high-end jeweller through a hole in the floor via a neighbouring house, initial police investigations showed on Sunday. Although the alarm system sounded shortly before midnight, the perpetrators were able to disappear before the first police officers arrived.
The shop is located in Via Condotti, one of the Italian capital's luxury shopping streets in the immediate vicinity of the Spanish Steps. A hole was discovered in the floor that connected the shop to the basement of a neighbouring building.
Investigators are hoping to obtain information from the surveillance camera footage. While the police put an intiail value of the stolen jewellery at €500,000, it could also be significantly higher.
