French detectives investigating whether gunmen wanted money or sensitive diplomatic documents
The Saudi embassy in Paris. Police say there were no injuries in the attack on the convoy.
Photograph: Remy De La Mauviniere/AP
French detectives are investigating whether a group of heavily armed gunmen who attacked a convoy of vehicles carrying a Saudi prince and his entourage in the north of Paris wanted money or important diplomatic documents.
The attackers, who police said were clearly well informed, struck on Sunday evening after the motorcade of a dozen vehicles left the luxurious George V hotel on the Champs Elysées and headed to Le Bourget airport, nine miles (15km) north of the French capital.
As the convoy arrived at Porte de la Chapelle, which leads to the péripherique ring road, the attackers – who were travelling in two BMWs without number plates – forced the Saudis' cars to stop, and went straight to one of the vehicles, a Mercedes people carrier.
The robbers, said to number between five and eight, seized the Mercedes and its three occupants – as well as €250,000 and what Le Parisien newspaper described as sensitive documents.
Soon afterwards the robbers released the hostages and abandoned the vehicle, which was found an hour later in Saint-Mesmes, a village in the Ile-de-France region north-east of Paris, along with one of the BMWs. Both vehicles were burnt out.
Some reports suggested the robbers were carrying handguns, others that they were armed with Kalashnikovs, but detectives said no shots were fired and no one in the convoy was hurt. Two €500 notes, documents in Arabic and some medical drugs were said to have been found near the wreckage....MORE
