Gems stolen in one of the largest and most daring jewellery heists ever in Britain will already be out of the country, a former Flying Squad chief believes.
Jewellery and precious stones, which could be worth millions of pounds, were snatched by thieves from a vault in Hatton Garden, London, over the weekend.
The villains are believed to have broken into the building through the roof and abseiled down a lift shaft to access the vault.
A statement from the Metropolitan Police said heavy cutting equipment was then used get into a vault at the premises, where 60 to 70 safe boxes were raided.
The vault is believed to be reinforced with thick metal and concrete protection doors, up to 2ft thick.
Former Flying Squad chief Barry Phillips described the heist as "sophisticated" and "highly organised".
He said the robbery will have been carried out by a "professional team".
"This has all the hallmarks of a TV or Hollywood film production," Mr Phillips said.
"It was a highly organised, sophisticated crime. It's highly likely that any gems or jewellery will have already been sourced and out of the country."
"If past jobs of this nature are taken into account, the thieves will have placed all of the jewellery prior to the robbery. That takes a high degree of organisation on behalf of the villains."
Police have not put a value on the goods stolen, but estimates vary widely from hundreds of thousands of pounds to stg£200m (€274m).
One victim of the heist, a jeweller from the area, has spoken of his "extreme shock".
He said he feared that a stg£5,000 (€6,873) watch he bought for his son on the day he was born might have been stolen.
Michael Miller said he "felt sick" at the prospect of losing up to stg£50,000 (€68,731) of jewellery and watches during the burglary. Mr Miller told reporters his goods - like those of many with deposit boxes there - were uninsured.
Reporter Martin Brunt said: "The suspects have had perhaps several days (over the Easter weekend) in which to get in. One report, I'm told, suggested that they used a lift shaft at some stage to get into the centre, which must be pretty heavily protected."
"It's probably going to be some days before we get an idea of exactly how much has been stolen or what indeed has been stolen."
Hatton Garden is known as London's jewellery quarter and the safe deposit boxes are mainly used by local jewellers to store loose diamonds in packets.
Other boxes - around 10% of them - are rented by private individuals and so the true value of the heist may never be known, Mr Phillips said.
In 2003, cash and valuables worth an estimated stg£1.5m (€2.06m) were stolen after a suspect emptied safe boxes at the Hatton vault while posing as a customer.
In July 1987, the Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre was hit by one of the largest robberies in history.
Two armed robbers asked to rent a safe deposit box and produced handguns after they were shown to the vault before making off with an estimated stg£60m hoard.
Valerio Viccei was arrested as he returned to England to ship his Ferrari Testarrosa to Latin America. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison.
