chennai burglars struck at a jewellery shop in tiruvallur early on sunday and escaped with at least 816 lakh of gold jewellery weighing 34 sovereigns 80 diamonds and 5 lakh police said praveen 33 ran the shop in bazaar street with his brother selling gold and diamond ornamentson saturday night he locked up after work and left for his home according to police the brothers usually kept small items in the shop and took the rest of the jewellery home as a precaution burglars believed to have come late in the night broke the grille gate and shutters using gas cutters none of the security guards who slept outside shops nearby reported hearing any noise praveen who came to open the shop early the next morning noticed the theft and alerted policepolice pressed a sniffer dog into service the dog rambo ran up to red hills but did not proceed further finger prints were also lifted from the scene of the crime the shop had a cctv camera footage from which the police are checking along with footage from cameras installed in other shops in the localitypolice sources said the burglars are likely to have targeted the shop between 12am and 3am when not many people were around many shops in the area downed shutters only around midnight and some vendors opened their shops as early as 3am sources said the burglars are likely to have conducted a recce before they struck they have left behind the silver items as they were not able to break into the locker in which the items were stored said an investigating officerpolice have launched a hunt for the miscreants whom they suspect to be a gang of previous offenders