Two suspects partially admit involvement in Louvre heist, prosecutor says

Precious crown jewels including the Parure Marie-Amélie diadème are yet to be recovered

Two men arrested in connection with the Louvre theft two weeks ago have "partially recognised" their involvement in the brazen heist, according to officials.

The pair in custody are suspected of being the two who used power tools to enter the museum's Apollon gallery and steal some of the French crown jewels.

Items worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were taken from the world's most-visited museum on 19 October, when four thieves broke into the building in broad daylight.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that the jewels had not been recovered yet, and the gang involved could be bigger than the four people caught on CCTV.

• How Louvre gang carried out France's most shocking theft

The two men, both in their thirties, have criminal records and were identified by DNA found during investigations, Beccuau said.

One of the men was arrested as he tried to board a one-way flight to Algeria, but Beccuau said the other man had not been planning to leave France, despite earlier media reports.

There was no evidence currently to suggest the theft was an inside job confirming no accomplices worked at the museum, she added.

But Beccuau said she was not ruling out the possibility that this involved more than the four suspects caught on CCTV, including the people expecting to receive the stolen jewels.

"I want to remain hopeful that [the jewels] will be found and they can be brought back to the Louvre, and more broadly to the nation", she said.

A crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, was dropped by the thieves as they fled. Damage to the crown is still being assessed, Beccuau added.

On Sunday when the arrests were made, the prosecutor criticised the "premature disclosure" of information related to the case, adding that it hindered efforts to recover the jewels and find the thieves.

On the day of the heist, the robbers arrived at 09:30 (08:30 GMT), just after the museum opened to visitors, Beccuau said at Wednesday's conference.

The suspects arrived with a stolen vehicle-mounted mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) via a balcony close to the River Seine. The men used a disc cutter to crack open display cases housing the jewellery.

She said the thieves were inside for four minutes and made their escape on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38, before switching to cars and heading east.

Nobody had been threatened during the raid, she told reporters.

Since the incident, security measures have been tightened around France's cultural institutions.

The Louvre has transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France following the heist. They will now be stored in the Bank's most secure vault, 26m (85ft) below the ground floor of its elegant headquarters in central Paris.