Paris' Apple store loses million euros in robbery

PARIS - Apple's flagship store in the famous Opera district of Paris was hit and looted by four gunmen on the New Year's Eve, with million-euro-worth gadgets being robbed away, local media reported Wednesday.

The robbery occurred on Monday night at around 9:00 p.m. local time (2000 GMT), three hours after the shop closing. According to local newspaper Le Parisien, there were two employees in the store when four masked men burst in. They later spent an hour loading boxes full of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers into a nearby van.

The damage is still under evaluation. Paris police has not confirmed how much the store has lost in the robbery, but reports on Wednesday put estimate of the loss worth at least 1 million euros (1.319 million U.S. dollars).

Le Parisien quoted sources as saying that the gang was well prepared, knew the layout of the store and struck at a time when many of the capital's police were on the crowded Champs Elysees.

This is the first time the Apple has been the victim of a robbery in France.

France also witnessed other damages during this New Year eve, although 53,000 policemen and gendarmes were mobilized across the country to secure safety places where hundreds of thousands of people were gathered for the New Year celebration, accidents still occurred as earlier reports said that a total of 1,193 vehicles were burnt on the New Year's eve in France.