French authorities have detained several men in connection with the recent theft of precious jewellery from the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Paris prosecutor says.

The prosecutor said on Sunday that investigators made the arrests on Saturday evening, adding that one of the men taken into custody was preparing to leave the country from Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The French newspaper Le Parisien and magazine Paris Match reported that the arrest at the airport took place about 10pm (20:00 GMT) on Saturday while a second suspect was arrested not long after in the Paris region, according to Le Parisien.

The Louvre Museum in the French capital closed one week ago after a group of intruders stole eight pieces of priceless jewellery on October 19 in a four-minute heist in broad daylight that rocked the world’s most visited museum and was followed raptly around the globe.

The robbers had climbed the extendable ladder of a moving truck and cut into a first-floor gallery.

They dropped a crown as they fled down the ladder and onto scooters but managed to steal eight other pieces, including an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave his second wife, Empress Marie Louise.

Officials said the jewels were worth an estimated $102m but have incalculable cultural value.

An intensive manhunt for the thieves has been ongoing, involving dozens of investigators.

The brazen theft has made headlines across the world and sparked a debate in France about the security of cultural institutions.

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Police initially cordoned off the museum – famously home to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Mona Lisa – as armed soldiers patrolled its glass pyramid entrance.

More to come …