Police in Germany have released dramatic CCTV footage of one of two suspects in the Dresden jewellery heist using an axe to smash a display case in the state museum’s Green Vault.

Two robbers snatched priceless 18th-century jewellery in an astonishing smash-and-grab raid from the Grünes Gewölbe’s jewel room at the Royal Palace in the east German city on Monday morning. Local media have called it the biggest art heist of all time.

Police have called for witnesses to step forward and released images of the stolen items, which were taken from a collection of jewellery that once belonged to the ruler of Saxony, Augustus the Strong.

They include a sword whose hilt is encrusted with nine large and 770 smaller diamonds, and a diamond bow decorated with 662 brilliants.