Two Qatari sisters have been tear-gassed by masked men on a Paris motorway and robbed to the tune of more than £4million, in the latest major heist to shock the French capital.

The tourists, both aged in their 60s, had just left Le Bourget airport when they were flagged down by the robbers on the A1 motorway near a service station.

After spraying both women and their driver with tear gas, the men forced open the car's boot and fled with an estimated five million euros (£4.2million) worth of valuables.

Carjackers and thieves from the northern suburbs of Paris often target cars leaving from both Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget airports via the motorways.

It comes after the US reality TV star Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint in a Paris hotel by masked men who fled with nearly 10million euros in goods.

"[They took] everything in the vehicle: jewels, clothes, luggage," one police source said of the motorway robbery yesterday, while another described the incident as a "spectacular" heist.