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Kentucky students reportedly witness Louvre heist during school trip to Paris

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(LEX 18) — Trinity High School students from western Kentucky were on a tour of the Louvre in Paris over the weekend when thieves stole more than $100 million worth of jewels, WFIE reported.

The students and staff were touring the world-famous museum as part of a school trip when the heist unfolded just steps away from them. They were headed to the Gallery of Apollo when the heist began, WFIE detailed.

"We were headed into the Apollo Gallery, we were about, I was probably 20 steps away, several of them were probably five steps from entering the door," Emily Hernandez, Trinity High School principal, said.

Mason Greer, a Trinity High School sophomore, was even closer to the action.

"I was about five steps away from the door when I heard the chainsaws, which I didn't know at the time that was what that was, I assumed they were renovating," Greer told WFIE.

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Hernandez explained that everyone began to run out in fear.

"All of a sudden, I see people just flooding out of the room, like pure fear on their face," Gracie Mills, Trinity High School senior, said.

Mills added, "Took a deep breath, and I just started running. I honestly didn't really know what I was running to, but in my head, I was just, 'I need to get out of here,' and I was just running."

"We kept instructing them, we have to stay close. Students are faster than us at times and I would say, 'Don't get so far ahead, we have to stay together. Whatever we do, all of us have to stay together,'" Hernandez said.

WFIE reported that the museum was put on lockdown, and the group was stuck near an exit for over an hour while military and police flooded the building.

"Obviously there was a danger. Anybody that will come in with masks and chainsaws, you don't know what they'll do. But at that point we were, they were going for that and not people. So that was good, but we didn't know that until we were out of the building," Hernandez said.

"This'll be a story I'll probably tell my whole life. And apparently this hasn't happened for a while, and the fact that we were there, it's just kind of mind-blowing," Mills said.

The Louvre is now back open to the public.

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