A female SO11 surveillance officer has described how she was seconds from being run over by the gang’s digger as it smashed into the Millennium Dome to launch the raid in The Millennium Dome Heist With Ross Kemp

A female SO11 surveillance officer has described how she was seconds from being run over by the gang’s digger as it smashed into the Millennium Dome to launch the raid in The Millennium Dome Heist With Ross Kemp.

In tonight’s episode of the ITV documentary, which airs tonight at 9pm, Carol, speaking for the first time ever about the 7 November 2000 raid, tells how she was coincidentally close to the door which the digger crashed through to get into the building. 

‘It was probably about 5-10 seconds afterwards.I mean, if we’d have been stood there we wouldn’t have a chance,’ she says. ‘We heard the crash turned round and realised, ‘Oh my God it’s coming in.’ 

‘It was this huge JCB with a bucket on the front. And I just remember the bucket bouncing up and down, orange flashing lights.It’s going fast. It wasn’t stopping. It’s coming straight for us.’

She went on to explain how she was armed, but that her weapon was in her bum bag at the time. 

‘That didn’t enter my head.We were fleeing – we were both running,’ she adds.

The documentary follows Ross Kemp on an investigative journey to discover the untold story of the Millennium Dome heist – one of the biggest and most audacious gem raids ever attempted on British soil.

Twenty years on from the raid, it features never-before-seen photographic evidence as well as surveillance footage to piece together the movements of the gang, which consisted of seven criminals equipped with a bulldozer and a speedboat as they set out to steal £350 million worth of diamonds from the Millennium Dome.

Instead the raiders were foiled by an undercover Flying Squad operation, every bit as bold and daring as their own. 

Ross tracks down the key players in the police operation, many of whom have never spoken publicly before – from veteran detectives and surveillance operatives who shadowed the gang’s every move, to the firearms officers who made the arrests inside the diamond vault.

He takes them back to the original crime scenes to reflect on the operation, blow-by-blow, to reveal the behind-the-scenes story of how they managed to track and then catch the would-be robbers in the act.

The target was £350 million worth of De Beers diamonds – a unique collection of gems with the 203-carat flawless Millennium Star diamond as its centrepiece.

The diamonds were on show to the public at the newly opened Millennium Dome landmark and tourist attraction where on November 7, 2000, among families and school children, the gang decided to strike in broad daylight.

They smashed through the perimeter fence with a JCB, throwing smoke grenades and using nail guns and sledgehammers to steal the diamonds.

The story started nine months earlier when a gang attempted to rob two security vans in London and in Kent.