Jewel heist at Cannes film festival

Jewellery worth about one million US dollars (€780,000) has been stolen from a safe in a Cannes hotel room, against the backdrop of the Riviera resort town’s film festival.

A thief or thieves ripped the safe out of the wall of the Novotel hotel room overnight where an employee of the Swiss-based watch and jewellery maker Chopard was staying, said Cmdr Bernard Mascarelli, a judicial police spokesman in the nearby city of Nice.

A Paris-based spokeswoman for Chopard said the company declined comment.

Melissa Levine, a spokeswoman for Accor, the French hospitality giant behind the Novotel brand, also declined comment.