Major clue found in gems heist case

London: Detectives hunting the Mayfair jewel raiders have found a loaded gun in a dramatic breakthrough.

Details of the find emerged as police issued an urgent appeal to trace two getaway cars used in the £40 million (Dh243.4 million) robbery. A silver Mercedes and a blue VW Sharan were used in an elaborate escape plan following the raid on Graff Diamonds.

Police believe they would have been abandoned afterwards but they are yet to be found.

Both cars are known to have been "cloned" by the gang, using number plates stolen from legitimate motorists.

Scotland Yard issued the registration numbers of the cars yesterday and appealed for anyone who may have seen the vehicles to contact them. The number of the B-Class Mercedes is LV06 HFA and the Sharan has the plate RA07 XEV.

Police said the loaded gun was not one of the two handguns used by the smartly dressed robbers to fire warning shots during the raid. They refused to say where it had been found but one possibility is that it was abandoned by the robbers in a third getaway car. The raiders escaped initially in a blue BMW but it crashed into a taxi in Stafford Street, where they dumped it and got into the Mercedes.

The weapon was being examined by ballistic experts yesterday to check if it had been fired. Detective Chief Inspector Pam Mace said: "We have recovered a loaded firearm that is connected to this incident. Several lines of inquiry are ongoing but I am happy with the way it is progressing".

Police sources say the gang left a trail of clues as they fled.

Detectives hope they will gain crucial information from the Charles Fox make-up studio in Covent Garden, where the two robbers went to get latex disguises just hours before the robbery.

While there, the men tried on two custom-built masks and forensic experts are now examining them for traces of DNA.

Other items such as hairbrushes and even the bank notes they used to pay for the session are also being examined. A motorcycle used as part of the getaway was found abandoned in Berkeley Square.

However, insiders also say that, so far, the gang has proved meticulous in its planning.

Detectives believe the pair who carried out the robbery were part of a much larger gang and one possibility is that they were brought in especially because they are not known to police and their DNA will not be registered on police databases.

Police arrested and questioned a 50-year-old man in Ilford on Monday in connection with the robbery.

Officers have also searched at least three properties in a series of raids across London and the South-East.

But experts believe the exquisite stones, including a yellow diamond flower necklace, were smuggled out of the country within hours of the robbery last Thursday.