PARIS (Reuters) – A lone gunman robbed a chic Paris  jewellery store in broad daylight yesterday, walking out of  the Chopard shop on Place Vendome with up to 10 million euros  ($14 million) of goods, police said.

Dressed in a suit and wearing a fedora, the man entered the  prestigious boutique, pulled out a gun and forced staff to hand  over some 15 pieces of jewellery, police said.
“According to the first set of information we received, it  was a man in his fifties, dressed in a chic costume and wearing  a Borsalino (fedora) hat,” said Olivier Lebon, a police union  representative.

“He came in like any other customer, pointed his gun at  employees and asked for about fifteen pieces.”
Lebon said the robbery took two minutes and estimated the  loot was worth between 6 and 10 million euros.
Based in Switzerland, Chopard is known for adorning movie  stars strutting on red carpets at high-profile events such as  the Cannes film festival or Hollywood’s Academy Awards.
Police have noted a marked increase in robberies in recent  years.
The heist, which took place in the early afternoon, came  after a gang of armed men stole gems worth 85 million euros from  jewellers Harry Winston in Paris in December, a robbery  described by the media as one of the biggest in recent history.

The Harry Winston raid came almost a year to the day after  the same store was attacked by robbers who forced staff to empty  its safes, taking at least $16 million worth of jewels.
Earlier this month, two key members of the “Pink Panthers”  international gang of jewels thieves were arrested in Paris,  Interpol said.