Rhino horn poachers strike - in Norwich

Police are hunting a gang who tried to steal a valuable rhinoceros horn - in Norwich.

The would-be thieves broke open a display case at the city's Castle Museum and removed a rhino's head.

But they were disturbed in their daylight raid by two curators who wrestled the head from them, reports the BBC.

The four-strong gang made their escape in a getaway vehicle. The raid follows a number of rhino horn thefts from museums.

Rhino horns can sell for £50,000 per kilo on the black market, making them more valuable than gold or cocaine, due to the belief that they have great medicinal powers.

Vanessa Trevelyan, director of Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, said: "This is something that has been happening in museums throughout the country.

"Rhino horns are extremely valuable. We are the first museum, I believe, to have foiled such an attack."