Gunmen dressed as police officers stormed Sao Paulo’s main international airport and stole 750kg of gold worth £32 million.
The armed gang took at least two staff members hostage after driving into Guarulhos airport in cars mocked up to look like federal police vehicles.
There were reports that the suspects had earlier kidnapped a senior airport official and members of his extended family for 12 hours to gain information about the gold, which was due to be flown to New York and Zurich.
The eight robbers covered their faces and carried rifles as they forced airport workers to move the gold into their getaway cars. Police said no shots were fired during the raid, and no one had been injured.
According to broadcaster Globo TV, the gang’s vehicles were later abandoned in Jardim Pantanal, a neighbourhood 12 miles from the airport. Guarulhos is the busiest airport in South America, with 37 million passengers a year.
Last year thieves stole $5 million (£4 million) in cash from a Lufthansa plane at a freight airport near Sao Paulo. Brazilian media reported that it only took six minutes to pull off that heist, after a gang placed stickers on their pick-up truck mimicking the airport security company’s logo.
Following the latest robbery, police said the airport official’s kidnapped family, including four children, were expected to speak to detectives today about their ordeal.
Sao Paulo police said they had increased surveillance around the airport and were still searching for the stolen cargo. Brazil has some of the largest reserves of gold in the world, with exports of the precious metal reaching $2.8 billion last year.
The airport heist is the latest major armed robbery in a country where such crimes often end in bloodshed.
In April, police in Sao Paulo shot dead 11 robbers who planned to blow up ATMs to steal the money inside.
One local police commander said the gang had been “prepared for war” and arrived at banks in armoured cars and with rifles and body armour.
They fled after being confronted by officers at the banks, including one next to a police station, before a running shootout through the city of Guararema, east of Sao Paulo.
