9th November 2000

Dome diamond raid

The robbers smashed their way through the Dome's gates in a digger. Armed with smoke bombs, hammers and nail guns, and wearing gas masks, they made their way to the zone where the diamonds were kept. Among the display they hoped to find the Millennium Star, which experts say is the world's largest diamond of its kind. Their aim was to break the reinforced glass case and then make their get-away on a speed boat which was waiting for them on the river Thames. Meanwhile, on the opposite bank one of the gang was apparently monitoring police calls using a scanner. But police - who say they had known about the planned heist for months - were lying in wait.

Detective Superintendent John Shatford said he was delighted by the undercoveroperation.
"If this robbery was carried out in accordance with the wishes of those taking part it would have been the biggest robbery to have occurred anywhere in the world. This was an audacious attempt at a robbery but it was foiled by an even more audacious policeresponse."

digger - a big machine for making holes in the ground

smoke bombs - bombs filled not with explosives but smoke powder

make their get-away - escape

monitoring - listening to what the police were saying

scanner - an electronic device used to listen to transmissions

heist - a term from American English for a large robbery

undercoveroperation- a complicated activity carried out in secret

audacious- audacious behaviour is behaviour in which people take risks in order to achieve something

policeresponse - what the police did to react to the raid

security alert- a warning

bursts of automatic fire - sudden short periods of shooting

considerable police presence - lots of police in the area

gunfire - repeated shooting, or shots from guns

Tipped off - if you tip someone off you tell them in secret about a crime that is going to happen

fakes - copies which look like the real thing