Reality TV star Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris apartment in a heist bearing the hallmarks of the infamous Pink Panther gang.
Paris police are still hunting “five” masked gunmen who stole £8million worth of jewellery from the Hollywood celebrity.
Yesterday, parallels were quickly drawn between the high-profile heist and past crimes carried out by the notorious international crime cartel.
The gang have famously stolen more than £280million worth of jewels since 1984 and are renowned for their precision and minimal violence.
It is claimed the Paris robbers dressed as police officers and tied the celebrity up in the bathroom while they ransacked her apartment.
The Pink Panthers – nicknamed after a 2003 London robbery when a thief mimicked the plot of the famous Peter Sellers movie by hiding a diamond in a pot of beauty cream – have previously dressed up as everything from golfers to Hawaiian tourists to gain entry.
Aberdeen woman Dorothy Fasola was linked to the gang following Japan’s biggest ever jewel raid in 2004.
Her Bucksburn home was searched by police following the £20million raid on Tokyo’s Le Supre Diamant Couture De Maki.
Japanese detectives were certain the Aberdeen-born mother-of-one had been the ‘Mrs Big’ who masterminded the raid.
Three Serbian men, alleged Pink Panther members, were found guilty of the robbery in Belgrade and were jailed for between three and seven years.
Fasola consistently maintained she was innocent and was never charged.
However, having fled to her native Scotland from Milan in 1999, after being convicted of armed robbery and counterfeiting, she was extradited to Italy in 2009 to serve the remainder of her sentence.
Kardashian, who had been attending Paris Fashion Week, left the French capital on a private jet following her ordeal.
She was “badly shaken but physically unharmed”.
It is likely the robbers would have cased the luxury apartment block she was staying in, called Hotel Pourtalès, beforehand.
They probably also monitored the star’s social media where three days ago she posted a close-up photograph of a huge diamond ring on her left hand.
The only security was a concierge, who was overpowered, tied up, gagged, and hidden in a cupboard in the stairwell.
The building also has hidden entrances for stars trying to avoid the paparazzi, which could also have helped the gang get in and out unnoticed.
