Gone in 9 minutes: How Celtic gold heist unfolded in Germany

Thieves who broke into a southern German museum and stole hundreds of ancient gold coins got in and out in nine minutes without raising the alarm, officials said on Wednesday. Police have launched an international hunt for the thieves and their loot, consisting of 483 Celtic coins and a lump of unworked gold. Guido Limmer, the deputy head of Bavaria's State Criminal Police Office, described how at 1.17am on Tuesday cables were cut at a telecoms hub about one kilometre from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, knocking out communications networks in the region. Security systems at the museum recorded that a door was pried open at 1.26am and then how the thieves left again at 1.35am, Limmer said. It was in those nine minutes that the culprits must have smashed open a display cabinet and scooped out the treasure. — ap