French police arrest two suspects in €88m Louvre jewel heist

French police have arrested two men in their 30s in connection with last Sunday's €88 million robbery at the Louvre museum in Paris.

"It is too early to give further details but I will make a further statement once the suspects' pre-charge detention period is over," Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement on Sunday.

The two are believed to be part of a gang of four, who robbed the crown jewels in a seven-minute heist.

The first suspect was detained at about 10pm on Saturday at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris by organised crime squad officers. French media reported he was about to board a plane to Algeria. The second man was arrested later that evening in the greater Paris region.

Both suspects are reportedly from the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis and were known to police. They were taken into custody on suspicion of organised theft and criminal conspiracy. Under French law, suspects in serious crimes can be held for up to 96 hours before being charged.

The pair were identified through forensic analysis of objects left at the crime scene, including a helmet, angle grinders, a hi-vis vest and other items. More than 150 DNA samples, fingerprints and other traces are being analysed in Paris laboratories.

The prosecutor expressed regret about the premature leak of the arrest information, saying it could hinder the work of investigators who are "mobilised to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators."

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez sent his "warmest congratulations" to the investigators but also called for judicial secrecy laws to be respected so detectives could continue their work.

The robbery took place last Sunday morning when four men pulled up outside the world's most visited museum in a stolen furniture removal truck fitted with an extending ladder and lift. Two of the thieves, dressed as maintenance workers in hi-vis vests, used the lift to reach the first-floor Apollo gallery.

They smashed an unsecured window and used disc cutters to open two display cases, spending three minutes and 58 seconds inside the gallery. The entire operation lasted fewer than seven minutes, with the gang fleeing on motorbikes driven by the other two members.

The thieves dropped a diamond and emerald-studded crown during their escape, but made off with eight richly gem-encrusted pieces. These included an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Marie Louise, and a diadem set with 212 pearls and nearly 2,000 diamonds that once belonged to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III.

On Friday, prosecutor Beccuau had said she was "optimistic" about the investigation's outcome as forensic teams continued their analysis of evidence from the scene.