Kim Kardashian West was robbed at gunpoint in Paris. Photo / AP
Kim Kardashian West was robbed at gunpoint in Paris. Photo / AP
Kim Kardashian begged 'Please don't kill me! I have children' as masked men put a gun to her head in an £8.5million raid at her Paris home yesterday.
Five English-speaking robbers posing as policemen are believed to have tracked her via her obsession with updating social media.
They tied up the American reality TV star in the bathroom of her palatial French residence and helped themselves to jewellery before escaping on hired bicycles.
In a stunning security lapse, her personal bodyguard Pascal Duvier was at a nightclub with her sisters Kourtney and Kendall at the time.
The mother-of-two, 35, pleaded for her life as the thieves bound her hands, taped her mouth and dumped her in a marble bath.
Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner attend the Givenchy show as part of the Paris Fashion Week. Photo / Getty Images
Within hours of her ordeal the 'hysterical' star fled Paris by private jet back to New York. Last night she was reunited with her rapper husband Kayne West, daughter North, three, and ten-month-old son Saint.
As French police were said to suspect an Eastern European gang with 'inside' help, a source told the New York Post: 'French police suspect that the five alleged robbers had some contact with her security and were tipped off about her procedures.
"They knew there was no security [with her inside her apartment that night]. All they had to do was go in, make contact with someone inside the hotel. They have issues with story of more than one worker at the hotel. They are also talking to bodyguards who worked with her earlier in the week.'
They took a jewellery box worth £5.24million, her 15-carat diamond engagement ring and two smartphones, before fleeing on Velios - hire bicycles which can be rented all over Paris.
At the time her main bodyguard Mr Duvier - who hours earlier had boasted on Twitter that 'you don't become a bodyguard overnight... it's a job with dedication, responsibility and passion' - was at a Paris club with her sisters Kourtney Kardashian, 37, and Kendall Jenner, 20.
Miss Kardashian, in Paris for Fashion Week, was described as 'badly shaken but physically unharmed'.
She is one of the most successful social media celebrities in the world, constantly filming herself to promote her various interests.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West. Photo / AP
She has 81 million followers on photo-sharing website Instagram, 29million on Facebook and 48 million on Twitter.
Her family are almost as prolific. In fact last night, only hours after the drama, her other sister Kylie Jenner was tweeting about her cosmetics range.
Two hours before the raid Miss Kardashian had flaunted her diamond engagement ring in a video to her army of fans on the messaging website Snapchat.
Her husband gave her the piece - her second engagement ring - a month ago and she has been posting pictures of herself wearing it ever since.
After being interviewed by French detectives, Miss Kardashian boarded a private jet at around 10am. In New York police officers, a convoy of SUVs with blacked-out windows and more than 20 bodyguards were waiting for her.
Wearing all black, with her head down and her hair covering her face, she went straight into her Manhattan home with her husband.
West had earlier abandoned a New York concert mid-song, telling fans there was a "family emergency".
When he first spoke to his wife on the phone, she was 'terrified' and 'just hysterical', a source told People magazine. "He said she was really upset and it took him a few seconds to understand what she was saying to him. He told her that he couldn't care less about the jewellery, he's just thankful she's OK."
Hidalgo added in a statement that she is fully confident that police forces will quickly identify and arrest those suspected of robbing the U.S. star.
Hidalgo insisted in her statement that the robbery "in no way calls into question police work or security of public space" in Paris.
