Police search for suspects after smash-and-grab at Fairview Mall jewelry store

Toronto police are seeking six suspects after a jewelry store in a shopping mall was robbed by people with hammers on Monday afternoon.

Video obtained by CBC Toronto shows six people in dark clothes and masks fleeing a jewelry store inside Fairview Mall as security guards are seen filming. The last person slips on shattered glass before making off.

One witness, who CBC Toronto is not naming due to their safety concerns, said they heard loud bangs before realizing a robbery was underway.

"We didn't know what it was. Originally, he thought it was like gunshots or something like that, something crazy," the witness said. "We saw the glass on the floor and heard screaming and the guys were in there and we knew instantly what was happening."

One person, who looked like a customer or a worker, walked out of the store a few moments later, the witness said.

The video shows two security guards standing by as the suspects ran off.

"At the time, everyone was looking at them, like what are they doing? I'm not going to lie, that was going through my mind as well, initially. It was crazy to me that they were just kind of standing there, recording. But then, the more I thought about, you know, there is only so much they could do," the witness said.

In a news release on Monday, police said officers were called to the mall at 1:20 p.m. All of the thieves used hammers to break the glass and all were wearing masks and gloves, police said.

"The suspects broke open the jewelry display cabinets and took a large quantity of jewelry from the display," police said in the release. They then left the mall and got into a waiting vehicle. 

That vehicle collided with another vehicle in the parking lot, said police. The suspects then got out and fled in another getaway vehicle, which was later found with the help of York Regional Police.

A driver of one of the vehicles in the crash remained at the scene, police said. 

Toronto has seen "significant" rise in jewelry store robberies, a police spokesperson told CBC Toronto in an email Monday.

As of last week, 43 jewelry store robberies had been reported so far this year, compared to 21 during the same time period last year. That's more than a 100 per cent increase, police said.

Toronto police said they're working closely with other police services across the Greater Toronto Area, as well as with Crime Stoppers, jewelry store owners, property management companies and security companies to combat the thefts.