£2m jewels gone in 39 seconds

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12 April 2012

Six robbers took less than a minute to nab gems and jewels worth nearly £2 million, in a smash and grab raid.

The motorbike gang struck in daylight at a jewellery store opposite Harrods in Brompton Road.

On three bikes teh robbers sped up to Mozafarian at 11am last Wednesday.

One smashed the front glass and door with a sledgehammer while he and at least two others burst in and grabbed handfuls of jewellery.

Less than a minute after they arrived they fled - scattering jewellery across the pavement.

Store boss Sokol Salia said: "We knew something was wrong when the motorbikes left the road and drove up on to the pavement.

"There were six big guys with helmets and one smashed the door.

"All you could hear was the din of broken glass. They came in and took almost everything. There was a huge panic."

An elderly woman customer in the store was left crying with fear.

Shoppers outside were stunned by the raid and too terrified to intervene.

Mr Salia said that afterwards some passers-by helped pick up pieces of jewellery and return them to the store.

The most expensive item stolen was a £500,000 diamond necklace.

The store was targeted in a similar raid last June and was fitted with extra strong security glass.

The raid came just 13 days after the £40 million gems robbery at Graff Diamonds in Mayfair. Police say there is no connection between the raids.

Detectives are concerned that the robbery marks the start of a spate of new smash-and-grab raids on West End stores by motorcycle and scooter gangs.

Two months ago police arrested nine men suspected of staging a series of motorcycle raids on London jewellery stores.


Necklace worth over half a million pounds taken from Mozafarian jewellers in Knightsbridge

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