shadenights

MUMBAI: In a daring heist, diamonds worth crores of rupees were stolen from a highly secured consignment of 'precious cargo' soon after it was offloaded from an international flight at the Mumbai airport on Thursday night.

The mysterious and unprecedented theft, which occurred in an area that is under tight security, has baffled airlines as well as security agencies. One airport official said the theft was the first of its kind at Mumbai airport.

According to the Mumbai police, the stolen consignment contained 3.5 kg of diamonds and gold jewellery. Till Friday night, the valuation of the stolen cargo was still on, but police officers estimated it to be in the range of Rs 4-5 crore.

The theft took place after 9.30pm on Thursday, when a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok, TG 317, landed in Mumbai. The plane was carrying over 280 passengers and had arrived on schedule.

The Airbus 330-300 aircraft, which taxied to Bay 53, had two consignments of 'precious cargo' in the special cargo hold in its belly. One consignment had gold jewellery and the other had diamonds and gold jewellery.

A cargo consignment registered as 'precious' may contain diamonds and/or metals, like gold, platinum and so on.

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