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CRIME

Dresden museum heist: Police offer €500k reward for stolen jewels

Investigators in Germany on Thursday offered a half-a-million-euro reward for information about the spectacular heist in which robbers snatched priceless diamonds from a state museum in Dresden.

Dresden museum heist: Police offer €500k reward for stolen jewels
A screenshot shows police surveillance footage of the heist. Photo: DPA

Authorities said the reward was being offered to anyone providing information  “which could lead… to the capture of the perpetrators or the recovery of the stolen items”.

Police across eastern Germany are continuing their search for the thieves who launched a brazen raid on the Green Vault museum in Dresden's Royal Palace on Monday.

Having initiated a partial power cut and broken in through a window, the thieves stole priceless 18th-century jewellery from the collection of the Saxon ruler August the Strong.

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They stole objects encrusted with hundreds of diamonds, including the famous 49-carat Dresden white, the museum said on Wednesday.

Police are hunting four suspects in the theft and have released dramatic CCTV footage which showed one of them breaking into a display case with an axe.

This photo shows one of the jewels stolen. Photo: DPA/Jürgen Karpinski/Green Vault/Police Headquarters Dresden

Aside from a burnt out car that they identified as the initial escape vehicle, investigators are yet to find a significant trace of the thieves.

Dresden police said they were also in contact with colleagues in Berlin to explore possible connections to a similar heist in the capital two years ago.

In 2017, a 100-kilogramme (220-pound), 24-karat giant gold coin was stolen from Berlin's Bode Museum.

Four men with links to a notorious Berlin gang were later arrested and put on trial.

On Thursday, police said the Dresden investigations were now being led by the state prosecutor's department for organized crime.

The special commission set up to investigate the theft has also doubled in size to involve a staff of 40.

“We will leave no stone unturned to solve this case,” said regional police president Horst Kretzschmar.

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BUSINESS

Elon Musk visits Tesla’s sabotage-hit German factory

Elon Musk travelled Wednesday to Tesla's factory near Berlin to lend his workers "support" after the plant was forced to halt production by a suspected arson attack on nearby power lines.

Elon Musk visits Tesla's sabotage-hit German factory

The Tesla CEO addressed thousands of employees on arrival at the site, accusing “eco-terrorists” of the sabotage as he defended his company’s green credentials.

With his son X AE A-XII in his arms, Musk said: “I am here to support you.”

The billionaire’s visit came a week after power lines supplying the electric carmaker’s only European plant were set on fire in an act of sabotage claimed by a far-left group called the Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group).

READ ALSO: Far-left group claims ‘sabotage’ on Tesla’s German factory

Musk had said then that the attack was “extremely dumb”, while the company said it would cost it several hundred million euros.

A week on, the lights have come back on at the site, but Andre Thierig, who heads the site, said on LinkedIn that it would “take a bit of time” before production is back to full speed.

Industry experts have warned that the reputational impact caused by the sabotage on the region could be more severe than the losses suffered by Tesla.

Tesla’s German plant started production in 2022 following an arduous two-year approval and construction process dogged by administrative and legal obstacles.

Tesla wants to expand the site by 170 hectares and boost production up to one million vehicles annually to feed Europe’s growing demand for electric cars and take on rivals who are shifting away from combustion engine vehicles.

But the plans have annoyed local residents, who voted against the project in a non-binding ballot last month.

After the vote, Tesla said it might have to rethink the plans. Environmental activists opposed to the expansion of the factory have recently also set up a camp in a wooded area near the plant.

READ ALSO: Why is Tesla’s expansion near Berlin so controversial?

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