PARIS (REUTERS)

Two suspects in the brazen daylight heist of some of France's crown jewels from the Louvre in Paris were arrested on Saturday evening near the French capital, the Paris prosecutor said, confirming an earlier report from newspaper Le Parisien.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Sunday that one of the men was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport north of Paris as he was about to leave the country. She did not say in her statement how many men were arrested or give more details.

Thieves stole eight precious pieces worth an estimated $102 million from the Louvre's collection on October 19, exposing security lapses as they broke into the world's most-visited museum during opening hours. They escaped on motorbikes.

News of the robbery reverberated around the world, prompting soul-searching in France.

According to Le Parisien, the two men are in their thirties and originally from the Seine-Saint-Denis area. They were known to French police, and one of the suspects was about to depart the country, the newspaper said. 

A hundred investigators had been mobilised to track down the thieves who robbed the world-renowned museum in broad daylight, making off with some of the crown jewels in just a few minutes.

During the heist, robbers has clambered up the extendable ladder of a stolen movers' truck and, using cutting equipment, broken into a first-floor gallery. They dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown as they fled down the ladder and onto scooters, but managed to steal eight other pieces, include an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise.

The Louvre's director has admitted the robbers had taken advantage of a blind spot in the security surveillance of the museum's outside walls.

But Beccuau said public and private security cameras elsewhere had allowed detectives to track the thieves "in Paris and in surrounding regions". Investigators were also able to find dozens of DNA samples and fingerprints at the scene.

The Louvre theft is the latest in a string of robberies targeting French museums.

Less than 24 hours after the Louvre break-in, a museum in eastern France reported the theft of gold and silver coins after finding a smashed display case.

Last month, criminals broke into Paris's Natural History Museum, making off with gold nuggets worth more than $1.5 million. A woman has since been detained and charged with involvement in the theft.