A gang of brazen thieves dropped the priceless Eugénie Crown outside the Louvre in Paris during a jaw-dropping daylight heist of the world's most visited museum.

The group of criminals swiped priceless items, including a necklace and a brooch once belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine, in broad daylight, forcing the tourist attraction to shut its doors.

The raid, which took place at around 9.30am on Sunday, saw the thieves brazenly break into the art museum, which is also home to the Mona Lisa, by propping a huge freight elevator up against its walls, according to an investigating source.

The group of several 'highly organised criminals' arrived on scooters, masking their faces to hide their identity, before pulling out chainsaws and making off with precious pieces worth millions, it added. 

Among the treasures was the Eugénie Crown, adorned with thousands of diamonds and emeralds and worn by the Empress of the French in the 19th Century, which was found tossed below a window of the Louvre and broken in pieces.

The historic piece was sold at auction in 1988 for $13.5million (£10m) before being donated to the Louvre in 1992. It is now worth tens of millions of dollars, expert Josie Goodbody told the Daily Mail.

It took the gang just seven minutes to complete their heist, from the moment they arrived to their speedy getaway, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.

They drove the elevator on the back of a flat-bed truck right up to a window close to the museum's Apollo Gallery (Galerie d'Apollon), which was opened by King Louis XIV in the 17th Century, he added.

'The window was cut through, using a hand-held disc cutter,' Mr Nunez said. 

Officers rushed to the scene and were pictured inspecting the elevator, resembling a giant ladder, which had been left up against the historical stone walls of the Louvre after the gang rushed off with the loot.

Further photos showed what appeared to be a disc-cutter on the front seat of a lorry, outside the museum, surrounded by police tape. 

Meanwhile, thousands of panicking tourists were trapped inside the iconic building while a hurried evacuation took place, before being escorted towards the city's streets on a busy day in the French capital.