Hatton Garden heist gang were inside building when police dismissed alarm
Metropolitan police investigate why alert was not acted upon as force releases images of scene following London robbery of valuables worth millions
The gang that raided a safe deposit vault in the heart of London’s jewellery district were inside the building when police decided not to respond to an alarm that could have led them to interrupt the heist.
The Metropolitan police said investigations were continuing into why the alarm was recorded as not requiring a response, as they released new pictures showing the scene of the robbery in Hatton Garden.
According to police, the gang drilled through a thick concrete wall before riffling through 72 secure boxes believed to contain cash, jewels and other valuables. Officers are trying to find out why only 72 of a total of 999 boxes were opened.
The pictures show the hole drilled through the concrete wall of the vault at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit (HGSD) using a heavy duty drill – a Hilti DD350. Police said the hole was 50cm deep, 25cm high and 45cm wide.
A diamond-tipped drill bit was used and police say the hole was 89cm from the floor. The gang left behind various tools, including drills, as well as crowbars and angle-grinders most likely used to force the boxes open.
The images show the scene officers found when they arrived after the raid over the Easter weekend: the floor was covered in debris and strewn with discarded deposit boxes and power tools.
After studying CCTV footage and clues from the scene, detectives believe between four and six people broke into the vault. The Met said they first entered at about 9.20pm on 2 April and stayed until 8.05am the next morning, Good Friday. An alarm at the scene went off at 12.21am on 3 April, about three hours after the gang entered the vault area, according to timings released by police.
The gang returned to the vault on Saturday 4 April at about 10.17pm, staying until 6.30am the next morning. Key staff were off work because of the Easter holiday and police were alerted to the burglary just after 8am on Tuesday 7 April.
When they arrived, detectives found no sign of forced entry to the outside of the building. A communal lift on the second floor was disabled and the suspects used the lift shaft to climb down into the basement. There, they forced open shutter doors and drilled holes into the wall of the vault.
Police say they have recovered thousands of hours of CCTV footage and are gathering all the clues left behind in the hope of catching the robbers. DS Craig Turner, head of the Flying Squad, said: “The hours of forensic work and inquiries have been vital in order to ensure we are able to exploit all investigative opportunities to their fullest extent and assist us in identifying those individuals responsible.
“Those safety deposit boxes not opened by the thieves during the burglary have been left secured as they were found throughout the examination. HGSD are in the process of making contact with owners to arrange collection.”
Police said they were still trying to trace some of the owners. Turner said: “Of the 72 boxes opened during the burglary, we have only been unable to make contact with six people who we believe have been a victim of crime. We continue to make efforts to trace them.”
The Met said: “The team have recorded, packaged and recovered approximately 400 exhibits, including items for DNA profiling, fingerprints and other evidence.
Specialist forensic photographers have mapped out the crime scene and utilised digital techniques to record the inside of the premises.”
The Met said it was reviewing why no officer was sent after the alarm went off at the premises. “It is too early to say if the handling of the call would have had an impact on the outcome of the incident,” Scotland Yard said in a statement.
An alarm call from Southern Monitoring Alarm Company was received at the Met’s central communications command at 12.21am on 3 April, saying that an intruder alarm had been activated at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd.
The call was recorded and transferred to the police’s computer-aided dispatch system. “A grade was applied to the call that meant that no police response was deemed to be required,” the statement said. “An internal investigation is ongoing to identify why this grade was applied to the call in conjunction with the alarm company.”
Millions in cash and valuables were stolen during the raid. Those who had rented boxes at the safe deposit company have expressed anger at the burglary and police failure to respond to the alarm.
Meanwhile, the Met also released a graphic illustrating how they think the suspects got into the building.
No arrests have been made and detectives are not yet believed to have prime suspects. An appeal for information about the heists and its perpetrators will be made on BBC Crimewatch on Thursday evening.
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