Two Qatari sisters were robbed at gunpoint of jewelry and other personal items worth $5.3 million while traveling Monday night on the A1 Autoroute from Paris-Le Bourget Airport to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. Photo: JP Gaborit/Aéroports de Paris

PARIS, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Masked men robbed two Qatari sisters at gunpoint, taking their jewelry and other personal items worth $5.3 million during a holdup on a highway north of Paris, authorities said.

Two men held the women and their driver up while they were traveling Monday night on the A1 Autoroute from Paris-Le Bourget Airport to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, Flavien Fouquet, general secretary of the Bobigny prosecutor, told CNN.


They sprayed tear gas on the driver and manhandled the women before taking their suitcases, Fouquet said.

A source told French digital TV station BFMTV that the Bentley the women were in had been forced to stop near a service station. The women were believed to be in their 60s.

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Robbers have targeted luxury cars or wealthy-looking foreigners stuck in traffic on this stretch of the highway.

Last month, the chief executive of a French furniture chain was in a taxi held up after leaving Le Bourget. The three robbers stole an estimated $105,000 in valuables.

In 2015, a Korean art collector had $4.3 million in jewels stolen from her car by three attackers.

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In 2014, a Saudi Arabian prince's convoy was attacked by eight robbers and robbed of $300,000 while heading to Le Bourget airport.

On Oct. 3, American reality TV star Kim Kardashian West was tied up and robbed of an estimated $10 million worth of jewelry in a luxury apartment in Paris' 8th Arrondissement by men dressed as police officers.

And this month, masked attackers attacked Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat and her French boyfriend in his apartment building's hallway in Paris' 16th Arrondissement.

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