Statement Antwerp diamond community regarding the Zaventem robbery

Caroline De Wolf, spokesperson for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre:

The Antwerp diamond community is shocked by the brutal heist of late last night. Armed robbers took off with around US$ 50 million worth in diamonds, both rough and polished stones.

Antwerp is the world's prime diamond trading hub; 8 in ten of all rough and half of all polished diamonds are traded in Antwerp.

To date, Antwerp is the most highly secured diamond centre in the entire global industry, guaranteeing a safe business environment and safe transport of the vast stream of valuable goods to and from Antwerp.

We find it hard to understand how a robbery such as yesterday's heist could take place. We are currently awaiting the results of the investigation but we do fear the damage for Antwerp, the world's leading trade centre, is significant.

We choose to transport goods via airplane, precisely because of the safe and controlled nature of this means of transportation. We do hope additional security measures can be put in place in order to safeguard a fluent and safe transport of diamonds.