Hatton Garden jewel robbers 'started major underground fire to disable alarms before raid'

A GANG which stole up to £200 million of jewels in a daring heist may have deliberately started an underground fire to disable hi-tech security systems.

Holborn fire and Hatton Garden heist in LondonGETTY•EPA

Former detective John O’Connor has suggested the Holborn fire and Hatton Garden heist are linked

Former Flying Squad boss John O'Connor suggested that last week's Holborn blaze could have been a setup before the Easter weekend heist in London's diamond district.

Power and phone lines went down leaving 5,000 homes and businesses without electricity during what investigators said was an electrical fire.

But now ex-detective O'Connor has suggested the blaze may have been started deliberately to disable hi-tech alarms at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company before a planned raid by expert thieves.

"I've never heard of an outage of electricity like that causing a fire that lasted as long as that," he said. "That seems to me too much of a coincidence."

Smoke billowing from drains after a fire in HolbornLNP

Smoke billowed from manhole covers during what the Fire Brigade said was an elecrical fire

Up to 70 boxes full of rare stones, antique art and priceless jewellery were robbed during the audacious heist over the weekend.

It is feared a rare half-cut aqua diamond – worth £500,000 – could be among the stolen jewels.

The thieves are believed to have accessed the secure building by abseiling down a lift shaft.

They would have had to pass through multiple reinforced doors in the fortified building to reach the boxes.

Detective leaves Hatton Garden Safe DepositGETTY

A detective leaves Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company

But O'Connor suggested that the robbers would have likely needed inside information to carry out the elaborate raid – and said the high degree of organisation is a clue to who committed the crime.

"If you know how to bypass all the security devices you're going to have a detailed layout of the whole of the business so clearly they got that from somebody on the inside," the ex-detective said.

He told LBC: "There aren't that many people who've got the capability of putting together a job as organised as that.

"In some ways it looks almost over-organised and that may give a clue to certain people who have failed in the past."

JewelsGETTY

It is feared that millions of pounds of jewels were stolen in the heist

Scotland Yard said it would take up to two days to complete a fingertip search of the premises.

Those who had belongings in the boxes could be waiting days to find out if their goods were missing.

Nearly all of the goods stored are believed to belong to those in the trade.

A police investigator leaves the buildingGETTY

A police investigator leaves the building

One furious jeweller said: "Our business could be losing a lot of money today - I won't tell you how much.

"But I would guess that each box contains around £500,000, possibly more.

"So the thieves could have got something like £30 or £40 million. And that's just a conservative guess.

"I wouldn't want to be an insurer when the bill arrives."

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