BRUSSELS, Belgium: A Belgian shopping center was evacuated on Saturday after three masked robbers, armed with at least one Kalashnikov rifle, burst into a jewelry store in Chatelineau, 50 km (35 miles) south of Brussels, police said.
Police escorted dozens of shoppers out of the Cora mall, some of whom confused the sound of glass jewelry display cases being smashed with that of gunfire, police commissioner Eric De Brabander said.
No shots were fired and no one was injured in the heist, he added. The robbers escaped.
Earlier, Mayor Daniel Vanderlick told the local RTL News that gunshots had been fired with a Kalashnikov.
The robbery comes just two days after two men made off with half a million euros’ worth of luxury watches at the central Paris offices of Swiss watchmaker Girard-Perregaux after threatening staff with tear gas.
Police said the robbers pretended to be couriers to get the door opened, threatened workers there with tear gas canisters, and escaped “with about 10 watches with an estimated value of 500,000 euros ($546,000),” said a police source.
A spokesman for Girard-Perregaux’s parent company Kering confirmed the value of the stolen watches.
In March, a Chopard jewelry store in the nearby Place Vendome was robbed of an undisclosed amount of merchandise by two men armed with a pistol and a grenade.
Security was stepped up in the chic square after a series of violent robberies there in 2014.
Both raids were in the same area that reality TV star Kim Kardashian was robbed in a luxury apartment by armed men who got away with jewelry worth around nine million euros ($10 million).
Robbers hit Belgian jewelry store 2 days after Paris heist
Robbers hit Belgian jewelry store 2 days after Paris heist
