BERLIN, Jan 27, 2009 (AFP) - Robbers have pulled off a daring heist in Berlin's best-known department store, police said Tuesday, stealing jewellery reportedly worth up to five million euros (6.5 million dollars).

KaDeWe - Photo : John Macdougall/AFP

The raid was carried out over the weekend at the huge, upmarket KaDeWe store but the robbers appear to have got around burglar alarms as the theft was not discovered until Monday morning, a police spokesman told AFP.

The robbers are thought to have abseiled into the shop, one of Europe's biggest department stores, through a skylight after hauling themselves up one of the awnings on the ground floor.

The bandits made off with diamonds and Gucci watches amongst other things, according to press reports.

"The fact that they didn't set off any alarms shows that this was a professional job," mass circulation daily Bild cited an unnamed investigator as saying.