Hatton Garden jewellery heist: Police release CCTV images of suspects breaking into safe deposit firm over Easter weekend
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Version 0 of 1. Police have released CCTV images from inside the safe deposit box firm where thieves are suspected of stealing up to £200 million's worth of jewellery in a "highly audacious" raid over the Easter weekend. The pictures show three men in workwear with their faces covered inside the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company's building in central London. It has now emerged that the gang carried out the burglary in two separate visits last weekend. Scotland Yard published the images after footage was obtained by the Daily Mirror which appeared to show at least six men taking part in the raid. The force insisted it had already recovered the footage "at the earliest opportunity" but refused to comment on why it was only released after being published by the newspaper. The thieves entered in through a lift shaft and used heavy cutting equipment to gain access the vault A former head of Scotland Yard's elite robbery unit earlier labelled the police’s handling of the heist as "utterly incompetent" after suggesting the paper got hold of the images before detectives. Police are still waiting to carry out a face-to-face interview with the owner of the safety deposit company because he is overseas but officers have spoken to security staff working at the building. Earlier the Metropolitan Police admitted officers were told a burglar alarm had gone off at the scene but decided it did not require a response. The force claimed it was "too early to say" if the handling of the call would have had an impact on the outcome of the burglary. CCTV footage issued by Metropolitan Police of a suspect during the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit raid The CCTV images released by police show one suspect wearing a yellow hard hat, high-vis jacket, with black gloves and he appears to have grey hair. He is pictured manoeuvring a blue wheelie bin. Another suspect is wearing a blue Adidas jacket, with his face covered, and is carrying two red tools. The third suspect's face is also covered. He is seen carrying a black bag over his shoulder and is wearing gloves. Another image shows a white van outside the building. A Met police spokesman later confirmed they were looking for more suspects in connection with the raid. Thieves raided some 300 deposit boxes in London's diamond quarter Detective chief inspector Paul Johnson said the images showed the three suspects using a side door to enter the building after arriving at 9.19pm on Thursday, April 2, before leaving the following morning at around 8.12am. The men then returned on Saturday, April 4 at 10.17pm before leaving the next morning shortly before 6.45am, police said. "They were highly audacious entering on two occasions over that weekend, " Mr Johnson said. "This footage, along with other material, was already recovered by police at the earliest opportunity, and continues to be evaluated to capture the precise movements of the suspects. "I would appeal to neighbouring businesses, or members of the public who are either witnesses or in possession of CCTV footage, to contact us with information to support this inquiry. "The examination of the scene has been painstaking and will continue into next week. These examinations are vital in order for us to arrest these thieves and we must exploit this one-off opportunity to the fullest extent. At least 70 safety deposit boxes were raided at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd "I appreciate that this has been a frustrating process for all those affected by this crime, and I would like to thank them and ask for their continued support in the investigation." While police have confirmed that around 70 boxes were accessed during the raid, the value of items taken has not been determined, with some suggesting the stolen items could be worth up to £200 million. Additional reporting by Press Association |