July 24, 2014 – On the afternoon of Saturday, July 19, 2014, a heavy gunfire occurred between a robber and police in the Paris underground station Grands Boulevards. Previously the delinquent had taken with him two trays of gold coins worth some 100,000 euros in the coin shop of Claude Burgan.
Just after this incident Claude Burgan, the owner of Maison Florange in Rue Vivienne, described to a reporter of the newspaper Le Figaro what had happened: ‘When I came back from lunch I opened the door and saw a man in the reflecting window glass. As usually – I was robbed twice before – I turned around but the robber pushed the door open and I came to fall down.’ Then the intruder hit the coin dealer at the head with the butt of his gun. Nevertheless Claude Burgan succeeded in getting up and run out of the shop. He even closed the door but the robber shot several times into the show glass until it burst and he escaped.
At random the robber grasped two trays of gold coins and precipitated over the pavement to the next underground station. Police officers on duty in this area pursued the man in this busy zone in the centre. When the villain jumped into an underground car he drew his pistol. In the following gun fight the robber was wounded at the shoulder. Shortly after he was taken to the hospital but his condition is said to be not critical. A police spokesman stated that the robber was known to the police for previous incidents of armed robbery.
Although the underground station was crowded there were no further wounded persons. Many police officers closed Rue Vivienne partially and interviewed numerous potential witnesses.
Claude Burgan considers, though, to give up his business as JDD reports: ‘That is the third time within five years that I have been attacked. It is simply too much. I think I will give up. I don’t want to get killed.’
You can read a detailed description (in French) on the website of Le Figaro…
… and le JDD.
And this is the website of Claude Burgan.