$2.5 million worth of gold stolen in Soran, Iraqi Kurdistan
A jewelry store in Iraqi Kurdistan, 2020. Photo: Screengrab/Rudaw TV
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— A gold shop in the town of Soran northeast of Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, was robbed on Friday. According to the shop owner, the losses in cash and gold total nearly $2.5 million dollars.
The burglars made off with 38 kilograms of gold and $300,000 in cash. They used household drills and jackhammers to tunnel underground and reach the gold shop’s vault, breaking through the shop safe’s meter-thick concrete and steel shelling.
Shop owner Kaifi has been left devastated by the heist.
“It’s not that easy. As I have been working my entire life and now I lost everything, it’s a terrible feeling for me,” he told Rudaw.
The shop is not the only one to sell gold in the busy markets of Soran. Kaifi warns other shop owners in the market to be cautious.
”People who work in this town have to be afraid. It will happen again if the robbers are not revealed.”
Although security cameras surveil the market, the robbers were able to dodge lens sight via the sewage pipes.
$2.5 million worth of gold stolen from a jewelry store in the town of Soran northeast of Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, March 7, 2020. Photo: Screengrab/Rudaw TV
Soran Police Department Spokesperson Shamal Dewari said on Saturday that investigation of the incident and search for the robbers is underway.
Dewari said the thieves as experts who had planned the heist with knowledge of the location of the safe, which they reached by digging a 500-meter-long tunnel from the closest sewer.
Police have not yet made any arrests. According to Dewari, the security cameras did not record any footage of any individual.
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