£40m gold raid foiled

Armed Flying Squad detectives foiled a £40million gold bullion and cash robbery at Heathrow Airport today.

Detectives supported by specialist firearms off icers ambushed an armed gang moments after they crashed through the security shutters of an airport warehouse.

The raid was the biggest attempted robbery since police foiled the £200million Dome jewel raid in 2000. More than 100 police officers were involved in today's operation. Had the thieves succeeded, the raid would have been the biggest bullion robbery since the £26 million Brink's-Mat warehouse raid at Heathrow in 1983.

Amid dramatic scenes, police marksmen challenged the eightstrong gang as they tried to smash their way into a locked area of the high- security warehouse.

Six men were arrested but two managed to escape in the confusion and hijacked a van at gunpoint. The van was later found abandoned nearby, the driver unhurt. The two suspects were still on the run this afternoon, and the subject of a massive police hunt.

No shots were fired during the operation, but one police officer was slightly injured and treated by an ambulance crew at the scene.

The raid took place at about 10am, when a white transit van bearing false number plates rammed through the steel security shutters of the Swissport Cargo warehouse in Staines, on the perimeter of Heathrow Airport. Inside the warehouse, eight masked men burst out of the doors brandishing handguns, knives and cudgels. Terrified staff were held at gunpoint and threatened with knives as the robbers began moving boxes of precious metals, including gold.

Specialist officers from the Yard's SO19 firearms unit had staked out the warehouse since the early hours after the Flying Squad received a tip-off that the raid was taking place.

Detectives said the robbery had been was highly organised and planned to take place hours after delivery of two high-value consignments of cash and precious metals.

The police action, codenamed Cartwright, was part of Operation Grafton - a long- running initiat ive to combat lucrative raids on Heathrow and surrounding cargo warehouses.

Detective Superintendent Barry Phillips of the Flying Squad said: "We have foiled what would have been one of the biggest robberies ever committed in the UK."