Paris – It's just a shaky video clip, less than nine seconds long. It shows a man dressed in black, masked, and wearing a neon-yellow safety vest, tampering with a display case in the Galerie d'Apollon. These are said to be the first images to show the jewel robbery at the Louvre!

The video was presumably recorded by a visitor. The world-famous museum in Paris was already open when the robbers climbed onto the first floor on a ladder truck at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. Visitors can also be seen in the back of the room. The French news portal bmftv.com first showed the footage.

They used cutting grinders to saw the display case

The masked robbers are said to have used a power saw to saw open the display case, emptied it, and then disappeared through the window. Minutes later, panic broke out in the Louvre; other videos show visitors running through the corridors toward the exit.

According to initial reports, four perpetrators were involved. They arrived at the Louvre on two high-performance scooters. At least two of the men are said to have climbed onto a first-floor balcony using a ladder truck they had previously parked there. They then sawed open the window.

Empress's crown lost during the escape

They also used the same saws to get to their loot. As Libération reports, they cracked open the display cases for"Napoleon Jewelry" and "Sovereign Jewelry" in the Apollo Gallery, completely emptying the display cases.

A total of nine pieces of jewelry were stolen. One of them—Empress Eugénie's crown—was lost by the robbers while fleeing. The robbery reportedly lasted only four minutes. After their loot, the robbers fled on their scooters toward the A6 motorway. One scooter was later found, according to police sources.

High-visibility vests as camouflage

Why the robbers wore high-visibility vests during the attack is unclear. One hypothesis is that they wanted to be mistaken for construction workers as they tampered with the window on the Louvre balcony.