http://world.globaltimes.cn/asia-pacific/2010-09/569443.html

Beijing police said Wednesday that an investigation was underway into a robbery case in which a foreign national allegedly took a diamond ring worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from a jewelry store at a downtown shopping center.

A press officer at the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, Zi Xiangdong, confirmed the case to the Global Times Wednesday, but declined to fur-ther disclose details such as the identity of the suspect.

The suspect visited a Tiffany store on the ground floor of Oriental Plaza on Chang'an Avenue several times before the alleged robbery, the Beijing News reported Wednesday.

The foreign man allegedly managed to grab a 3-carat diamond ring, worth about 2.19 million yuan ($320,000) by distracting the only shop assistant at the store at the time, the Beijing News cited a salesman at a shop next to Tiffany as saying.

"The man threw something onto the counter and when the sales assistant turned around to pick it up the man escaped with the ring through the front door," the salesman was quoted by the Beijing News as saying.

The Tiffany shop assistant attempted to chase the man who eventually disappeared, the paper said.

The front door of the Tiffany store facing Chang'an Avenue remained shut Wednesday.

Mall management and Tiffany shop assistants refused to comment.

A salesman at another jewelry store at the mall told the Global Times that at least two shop assistants, including a security guard, should be present when customers ask to try on jewelry.

Management at the mall circulated notices to shops in an attempt to warn against similar incidents taking place.

Chen Tao, a lawyer specializing in criminal law with the Beijing Lawyers Association, told the Global Times that criminals convicted of robbery involving items worth 2 million yuan could be given life imprisonment.