Germany police make arrests over huge gold coin heist

Special police units have raided several homes in Berlin in connection with the brazen heist of a 100kg Canadian gold coin from one of the city's most famous museums.

Heavily armed masked police arrested at least two suspects, one wearing a hood over his head, during early morning raids in the city’s Neukoelln neighbourhood.

"We assume that the two suspects match the ones seen on the video footage from surveillance cameras" during the burglary, police spokesman Winfrid Wenzel said.

He added that searches of the apartments were continuing, but the coin had not been found. Experts believe it might have been melted down to cash in on the gold, Mr Wenzel said.

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The Canadian Big Maple Leaf coin, worth several million euro, was stolen from the Bode Museum in March.

At least two burglars broke into the museum at night, using a ladder to climb to a window from elevated railway tracks.

They grabbed the coin, loaded it on to a wheelbarrow and carted it out of the building and along the tracks across the Spree river before descending into a park on a rope and fleeing in a getaway car.

In July, police published still photos made from surveillance video asking the public for help in finding the thieves.

Police say the coin – with a diameter of 53cm and 3cm thick – has a face value of a million Canadian dollars.

By weight alone, however, it would be worth almost €3.9 million at market prices. The coin is likely to have been damaged in the theft.

The coin, which has an image of Queen Elizabeth II on the front and maple leaves on the back, was on loan from a private, unidentified person, the German news agency dpa reported.

It is one of only five made by the Royal Canadian Mint.

AP