Apple’s flagship Paris store hit in ‘million-euro’ heist

Apple’s biggest Paris store was targeted by well-prepared armed robbers on New Year’s Eve. According to reports, the gang made off with at least a million euros worth of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

Armed robbers hit one of computer giant Apple’s flagship stores in central Paris on New Year’s Eve and made off with hundreds of thousands of euros worth of hi-tech gadgets, police said.

The gang targeted the store near Paris Opéra at 9pm after it had closed for the night, before making off with a lorry full of merchandise.

The police did not confirm how much they had been able to steal, although there were reports on Wednesday that the haul was worth at least a million euros.

According to daily newspaper Le Parisien on Wednesday, there were just two employees in the store when at least four masked men, who had been waiting at a rear door for the workers to leave, burst in.

The robbers, armed with handguns, “roughed up” one employee and threatened the other.

They then “spent an hour loading boxes full of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers into a nearby van,” according to a police source.

The source told Le Parisien that the gang was well prepared, knew the layout of the store and struck at a time when many of the capital’s police were on the crowded Champs Elysées.

Apple’s Opéra has the biggest turnover of any of the California firm’s French outlets. It is the first time the company has been the victim of a robbery in France.