Scotland Yard has launched an inquiry into why its officers failed to respond to a security alarm during one of Britain's biggest jewellery heists.
Police were alerted to an intruder alarm at the scene of the Hatton Garden safety deposit last Friday, which turned out to be Britain's biggest heists at the most exclusive jewellery district here.
Scotland Yard said an investigation has been launched into why a call from an alarm firm was given a grade that "meant that no police response was deemed to be required".
"The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has been making initial inquiries into what calls were received relating to the Hatton Garden burglary last weekend.
"At this stage we have established that on Friday, 3 April at 00:21hrs a call was received at the MPS Central Communications Command (MetCC) from Southern Monitoring Alarm Company, Scotland Yard said in a statement.
The call stated that a confirmed intruder alarm had been activated at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd.
The call was recorded and transferred to the police's CAD (computer aided despatch) system.
A grade was applied to the call that meant that no police response was deemed to be required. We are now investigating why this grade was applied to the call, it said.
This investigation is being carried out locally.
It is too early to say if the handling of the call would have had an impact on the outcome of the incident.
Thieves disabled a communal lift shaft and climbed down to the basement before using power tools to break into the vault during the Hollywood film script style sophisticated raid in London's jewellery district.
Once inside, they opened up to 70 safety deposit boxes and fled with jewels worth around 200 million pounds.
There was no sign of forced entry to the building, which is shared by a number of other companies.
Scotland Yard said it had not ruled out insider knowledge. No arrests have been made so far.
