A lone man wearing gloves, a cap, and a scarf to mask his face sneaked into a diamond show in a luxury Cannes hotel and made off with some €103m of loot, a French state prosecutor said yesterday — more than twice the initial estimated take from the weekend hold-up.

Nice and Cannes on the French Riviera, best known for glitz and film festivals, were among towns that imposed curfews for minors even as rioting appeared to be abating nationwide.

France’s storm of rioting lost strength today with a drop of nearly half in the number of car burnings, police said. But looters and vandals still defied a state of emergency with attacks on stores, a newspaper warehouse and a subway station.

Rioters defied emergency laws that took effect today as they looted and burned two superstores, set fire to a newspaper office and paralysed France’s second-largest city’s subway system with a firebomb.

THE estranged wife of the missing Earl of Shaftesbury is receiving treatment for depression in hospital after allegedly admitting she played a part in her husband’s disappearance, it was revealed last night.