THE HAGUE – Suspected armed robbers raided one of Europe’s biggest art fairs in the Dutch city of Maastricht in broad daylight today, police said, showing a video of men smashing a display case with a sledgehammer.
“Police are investigating a possible armed robbery of The European Fine Art Fair (Tefaf) in Maastricht. Four suspects are believed to be involved. Multiple units are now searching for them,” Limburg province police said on Twitter.
Police later said they had arrested two people and had closed a number of nearby roads and a major road tunnel.
Dutch media said the display case targeted by the robbers contained items from a London jeweller.
Dramatic video on social media showed four men dressed in smart clothes, flat caps and glasses smashing their way into a jewellery case at the show.
Two of the men brandished what appeared to be weapons at a bystander, who tried to intervene using a large glass vase full of flowers.
Tefaf is one of the biggest in Europe and regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors. – AFP, June 28, 2022
