Police release CCTV images of three 'heist' suspects

Police are examining CCTV footage apparently showing a gang of robber pulling off the Hatton Garden gems raid over the Easter weekend.

Images published by the Daily Mirror show at least six men reportedly arriving at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company's building on Thursday night.

A Scotland Yard spokesman insisted officers were already aware of the footage, along with images captured by other security cameras, before it was published by the paper.

The force has also "not made any links" between the raid and an underground fire in London's Holborn area days earlier which caused widespread power outages and road closures, the spokesman added.

Detectives investigating the £200 million raid on Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd in London have said 72 boxes were opened during the audacious Easter weekend theft.

A Met Police spokesperson said officers are looking to contact 56 owners of the deposit boxes, as five of the opened boxes were vacant and 11 were due to be drilled out for non-payment of fees.

• How the Hatton Garden robbery was carried out

Scotland Yard today confirmed it was investigating why the force did not respond to an intruder alarm which had been activated last Friday at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd which was raided over the Easter weekend.

The Metropolitan Police have said "nothing in the investigation so far" indicates a link between the Holborn electrical fire and a multi-million pound heist at Hatton Garden less than a week later, but added that "all lines of enquiry are open".

Separately, London Fire Brigade said that their initial assessment suggests the fire was caused by an electrical fault in the tunnels running underneath the Kingsway.

The recent multi-million pound heist in London's Hatton Garden may be linked to a major electrical fire in nearby Holborn the previous week, a former senior police officer has claimed.

John O'Connor, once head of Scotland Yard's elite Flying Squad, made the remarkable claim in an interview with LBC, as he said he believed the fire "probably was deliberate".

The blaze, which began in Kingsway, Holborn on Wednesday, was not extinguished until late on Thursday and led to widespread outages and road closures in the area in the following days.

He said police would likely be investigating links between the two incidents because "that seems to me to be too much of a coincidence".

He also suggested that one line of inquiry would be whether the robbers had "insider information" to help them with the audacious raid.

O'Connor added that the stolen diamonds were likely to be sent abroad, telling the station: "If I was a betting man, I'd put a bet on that they will arrest a handful of people involved in the actual obtaining of the diamonds. I doubt if they'll get the diamonds back."