BERLIN: German police commandos Wednesday detained two suspects in the spectacular theft of a 100-kilo (220-pound) gold coin from a Berlin museum this year.
Around 300 police took part in dawn raids on two apartments and a jeweler’s shop in Berlin’s Neukoelln district and locations in surrounding Brandenburg state.
The Canadian “Big Maple Leaf” stolen in late March has a face value of $1 million, but the market price of 100 kilos of gold is almost $4 million.
The commemorative coin issued by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007 measures 53 cm (21 inches) across and features a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.
Thieves in late March stole the mega-coin from the Bode Museum on the capital’s so-called Museum Island, close to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s apartment.
Police in early July published video surveillance footage of the suspected thieves that showed three men wearing dark clothes, their faces obscured by hoodies, high collars and their hands.
Authorities said Wednesday that two of the men detained were believed to be the suspects in the footage, and that the other raids aimed mainly at securing evidence.
There was no indication that the massive gold coin had been recovered.
2 suspects held over Germany’s 100kg gold coin heist
2 suspects held over Germany’s 100kg gold coin heist
Four killed in Ukraine as Moscow and Kyiv exchange drone strikes
- Kyiv said Russian drone strikes had killed two people and wounded seven more in Kharkiv
- Synegubov said two people had been killed in the attack on the Shevchenkivsky district
KHARKIV, Ukraine: Russian and Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least four people Wednesday, officials said, as the war between the neighbors dragged on for more than four years with no diplomatic breakthrough in sight.
The latest attacks came with a third round of three-party talks derailed by the war in the Middle East, despite pressure from Washington on both sides to agree to an elusive peace deal.
Kyiv said Russian drone strikes had killed two people and wounded seven more in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, which lies close to the Russian border, was encircled at the beginning of Russia’s invasion four years ago.
It has been attacked almost daily since Moscow’s forces were pushed back later in 2022.
The governor of the wider region, Oleg Synegubov, said two people had been killed in the attack on the Shevchenkivsky district.
“A civilian enterprise caught fire as a result of the enemy strike,” he said, adding that three women and four men had been hospitalized.
Another Russian drone wounded 20 people in the afternoon, after hitting a civilian minibus in the southeastern city of Kherson, Ukrainian prosecutors said.
In the Russian-occupied part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow-installed authorities said two civilians had been killed in their car by a Ukrainian drone strike on the frontline town of Vasylivka.
“The danger of repeated strikes remains,” Kremlin-appointed governor Yevgeny Balitsky said.
