Officers Injured in Disneyland Holdup

The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 18, 2002; 7:31 PM

PARIS –– Masked robbers crashed a car into a currency exchange office in Disneyland Paris on Tuesday, trading fire with police as they fled with an undisclosed amount of money, authorities said. At least three officers were injured.

The dramatic afternoon holdup at the American Express office in the theme park, located in Marne-la-Vallee east of the capital, was the latest in a series of robberies of jewelers, armored cars and money exchanges around France.

The attackers briefly took two park employees hostage before releasing them unharmed, authorities said.

They then fled in a car, said a spokeswoman for American Express, who refused to say how much money was stolen.

One female officer was hit in the leg as police clashed with the robbers during their getaway, police said. Two other officers were being treated for wounds caused by broken glass.

The incident comes on the heels of a rash of holdups around France. While cars are sometimes used to ram windows, rocket launchers also have been used, as in a May 30 attack of an armored delivery truck in the Eure region of western France.

In one recent jewelry heist in Paris, the attackers used a vacuum cleaner to scoop up the goods.

© 2002 The Associated Press