Video appears to show alleged thieves escaping

Video has emerged appearing to show the alleged thieves behind the Louvre heist making their escape on a mechanical ladder in broad daylight.

Two people can be seen looking around frantically as they slowly descend, minutes after the famed Paris museum was broken into and €88m-worth ( (£77m) ) of France’s crown jewels were stolen.

The gang of four thieves have not been caught and on Wednesday, the Louvre’s boss admitted that staff had failed to spot the robbers early enough because there was only one camera pointing on the gallery where the items were displayed.

In the video, the truck fitted with the ladder is seen parked by on a busy road running along the Seine as vehicles pass.

Laurence des Cars told French lawmakers that the Louvre planned to double the number of CCTV cameras in and around the museum.

She admitted that the camera trained on the Gallery of Apollo, the south-side room where the jewels were kept, was facing the wrong way.

“There is a weakness at the Louvre and I acknowledge it completely,” des Cars said.

Paris city prosecutor Laure Beccuau told the Ouest France newspaper that up to 150 DNA samples and fingerprints had been retrieved so far as part of the police investigation.

The robbery happened in less than eight minutes, after the thieves arrived at 09:30 on Sunday morning (06:30 GMT) after the Louvre opened its doors to the public.

They stole eight items including an emerald necklace and earrings given as a wedding gift by Napoleon Bonaparte to his second wife, Marie-Louise

As they fled, they dropped a 19th-Century diamond-studded crown belonging to Empress Eugenie.

Although it was recovered, the crown was damaged and des Cars said it had probably been crushed as the thieves prised it from its display case.