.Thieves made off with up to £200million-worth of jewels after bold break-in
- .An alarm went off around the time the heist is thought to have started
- .Police admit they were told of alert but decided not to attend premises
- .Jewellery traders brand the force 'incompetent' for not responding to call
Police were told an alarm was going off at the scene of the Hatton Garden gem heist but decided not to attend, it emerged today.
Up to £200million of jewels were stolen in an audacious burglary over the Easter weekend, when thieves drilled into a vault at the centre of London's diamond district.
Police today confirmed that an alarm went off at the raided premises in the early hours of Friday morning, but they decided it did not need immediate investigation.
Detective Chief Inspector Paul Johnson speaks outside Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd yesterday. Police have admitted they were told an alarm was going off at the premises last week but did not attend the scene
Scotland Yard said it got a call at 20 past midnight on Friday morning from a company who monitors alarms across the South East.
A spokesman for the police said: 'The call stated that a confirmed intruder alarm had been activated at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd.
'The call was recorded and transferred to the police's (computer) system. A grade was applied to the call that meant that no police response was deemed to be required.'
The spokesman added: 'We are now investigating why this grade was applied to the call. This investigation is being carried out locally.
'It is too early to say if the handling of the call would have had an impact on the outcome of the incident.'
Thieves disabled a communal lift shaft and abseiled down to the basement before using top-of-the-range power tools to break into the vault.
Once inside, they opened up to 70 safety deposit boxes in a raid described as 'sophisticated' by detectives.
After hearing the latest statement, furious jewellers branded police 'incompetent' for not attending when the alarm went off.
A call about the alert was categorised as not requiring a police response, Scotland Yard confirmed today. The raid was not discovered until Tuesday
The raiders are thought to have hid in an office before working their way down to the basement and drilling through a two-metre-thick wall into the vault and opening 70 safety deposit boxes
A 63-year-old trader, who asked not to be named, but had been in the business for 30 years, said: 'That statement now makes me so angry. How can they have ignored it?
'That line about "It is too early to say if the handling of the call would have had an impact" - What does that even mean?
'Do they even believe their own rubbish? What is this nonsense about it being a "sophisticated" raid? It's rubbish.'
Asked what he would do if his box was raided he said: 'The only option you have is to claim from your own insurance and the other possibility is to actually sue the owners of the building and the police.
'Obviously I would need more information and I can't say right now what I will do but I would consider any of these options.
'Suing anyone is a last resort but it's something I would consider as a range of options.'
He added: 'I cannot believe that we actually pay these incompetent people. I say it is a waste of b****y time trying to get answers out of them.
'It makes you want to weep. We don't even know if our things are safe.'
Asked what he kept in his security box, he said: 'Listen, it's not even about that. I'm not even interested in talking about my possessions - they're valuable but I'm not interested in that.
'It's more to do with showing people some common courtesy. I've not received a call, I've heard nothing, and then suddenly I hear that they didn't even come out when the alarm went off on Friday.
'So far as I'm concerned the police have got a lot to answer for.'
Another jeweller and pawnbroker who runs a family business with his father, added: 'It's just unbelievable that they could ignore a call from an alarm company.
'That's the thing that gets me - you ask them for four days if they actually answered a call from an alarm company and they say some c*** about how they're "investigating" it.
'They're the ones who did it, so why do they need to investigate anything?'
He added that he and his father had become so desperate to find out what had happened to their box, which contained 'between two and five hundred thousand pounds' of jewellery and watches, that they had paid someone to find out.
'Basically my Dad paid a guy to find out. I don't know exactly who he was but it was for two other people.
'We found out that our box was OK. It was a celebration and a party at the same time - I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
'It did turn out that one of the guys had lost some diamonds - I think he's probably too depressed to even say how much he's lost.
'The police have a lot to answer for.'
The police admission over the alarm came after potential victims had already expressed anger at being left in the dark over the investigation.
Many are still waiting to be told if they have lost out.
The thieves used a £3,500 heavy-duty drill to make a number of holes in the reinforced concrete of the safe
Sanjay Ambani, a jewellery dealer for over 20 years who used the safety deposit centre, hit out at the lack of information yesterday.
He said: 'I'm so angry that the police haven't even told us what has happened. I watched the statement on telly and they told us nothing about when we're going to find out. It's maddening.'
Also speaking yesterday, safety deposit box owner Aadil Shaikh also criticised the apparent slow pace of the probe.
He added: 'We just want an assurance that they're doing whatever it takes to speed up the investigation and trying to track down those involved.'
He also expressed anger at the company which was burgled, adding: 'This is not a Third World country, it's London for crying out loud.'
Calls to emergency services are dealt with by an operator who grades them 'in terms of their urgency', protocol states.
Met Police policy says: 'The operator will grade the call in accordance with standard operating procedures for the type of incident. The grading will depend upon the urgency of the call.'
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