Seven suspects arrested in Hatton Garden raid

Detectives investigating the safety deposit box vault burglary in Hatton Garden here arrested seven men and recovered a large amount of property, the Metropolitan Police said Tuesday.

More than 200 police officers raided 12 addresses at around 10:30 a.m. local time Tuesday (0930 GMT) in north London and Kent, police said.

Seven men, aged between 48 and 76, were arrested in this raid.

"A number of large bags containing significant amounts of high value property have been recovered from one address," the police said, adding that officers were confident these were items stolen during the burglary.

The arrested were taken to a London police station. Searches at the addresses are ongoing.

Over the Easter weekend last month, around 70 safety deposit boxes of valuables and jewelry were ransacked by thieves with heavy cutting equipment after they broke into a vault at Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Ltd, according to local media.

During the robbery, the police did not respond to the intruder alarm that went off.

"Our normal procedures would have resulted in police attending the scene, and we apologize that this did not happen."

"We are working closely with the alarm industry to improve the call handling and response processes at both ends to ensure nothing like this happens again. A more detailed investigation into the defeat of the alarm system at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd is ongoing and we will share the lessons learned with the business community in due course," it added.

Following the arrest of seven men, Detective Superintendent Craig Turner appealed for information about a white van seen in the area at the time of the raid on Tuesday afternoon.

He said cameras had caught footage of a white van in the Hatton Garden area over the Easter bank holiday, but the police hadn't yet managed to recover the van. He asked people who had seen it, or had any leads, to contact the police. Endit