Vienna jeweller calls for bollards after ram-raid

A day after a car-ram raid at a luxury jeweller on Graben, the suspects remain at large. The jeweller is calling for bollards to prevent similar break-ins, ORF reported.

The attackers reportedly drove a large SUV into the shop’s armoured-glass facade three times before it gave way. They then smashed display cases and collected jewellery scattered across the shop by the impact. The raid is believed to have taken just over a minute.

“It looked as if a bomb had gone off,” jeweller Felix Köck told ORF’s “Wien heute”. He said pieces were strewn throughout the shop, some destroyed and others left in corners. The insurer had considered the armoured-glass windows adequate protection, but they could not stop a vehicle used as a battering ram.

The facade has been temporarily boarded up, and the insurer is assessing the damage. Köck expects the loss to reach the single-digit millions. He said many of the stolen pieces were unique items made by the jeweller and could not be reproduced.

Köck says bollards in front of the shop would help prevent such attacks and wants barriers to be allowed at night. The jeweller has reopened, directing customers through other entrances to rooms on the upper floors while the main entrance remains inaccessible. He hopes to reopen it soon, ahead of the Christmas shopping season.