Jewel heist raises questions on Riviera security

PARIS — Police and staff at a French Riviera hotel are raising questions about security after $136 million in jewels was stolen by a single gunman who came in through a side door and walked out with the loot.

Zakaria Rami, a union representative at the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes, said yesterday that only a handful of unarmed private guards secured the site and police weren't told that tens of millions of dollars in jewels were on display on the building's ground floor.

Private security guards are prohibited from carrying weapons in France — that's reserved for police.

Police say they're looking into the measures taken to protect the jewels, which belonged to the prestigious Leviev diamond house, owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev.