A family-run jewellery shop in the town of Roubaix in northern France was robbed on Thursday.
The thieves broke into the jewellery boutique, briefly taking the jeweller and his wife hostage before fleeing with the valuables. The jewelry was worth between 500,000 and 1 million euros, police said, Le Monde reported.
According to the regional daily, several thieves broke into a jewelry store in the center of Roubaix on the night between Wednesday and Thursday and held the jeweler and his wife hostage in the family home before leaving with a huge amount of loot.
The Lille prosecutor's office announced that it had opened an investigation into "kidnapping with the aim of committing a criminal act committed by an organized group, extortion by an organized group with weapons and participation in a criminal association for the preparation of a criminal act", according to the French portal.