Saudi Prince's Motorcade Held Up by Masked Gunmen in Paris

A gang of masked gunmen held up the motorcade of a Saudi prince in north central Paris, on Sunday night, French police said yesterday.

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud's convoy was raided by between five and eight men, carrying AK-47 assault rifles, who hijacked one of the vehicles carrying €250,000 in cash, "sensitive documents", and three passengers French magazine Le Parisienne reported. The passengers were released during the thieves' getaway.

The Prince's 12-vehicle long convoy had left the Georges V hotel on the Champs Elysee late on Sunday evening and was on its way to Le Bourget airport, when two BMW vehicles without license plates forced the motorcade to a halt 4.6 miles from the airport, at Porte de la Chapelle.

The stolen Mercedes and one of the attackers' BMWs were found burned out 24 miles northeast of the scene of the crime in the town of Saint-Mesmes, along with two €500 bills, a few documents in arabic and medication, according to Le Monde.

"It's quite an unusual attack," one police source told AFP. "They were obviously well-informed. It's true that it's quite a rare way of operating."

The Prince had arrived in Paris as part of his tour of the continent's renowned tourist destinations after spending Ramadan in Saudi Arabia.

French police have already said they are hard at work at recovering the stolen documents and an investigation will determine whether the attackers were after the money or the documents.

The Saudi Embassy were not immediately available to comment.

The robbery comes less than two weeks before Saudi Arabia's Minister of Defence, Crown Prince Salmane Ben Abdel Aziz Al-Saoud, will meet with President Francois Hollande and French Arms manufacturers in the French capital.