Cannes robbery: CCTV footage emerges of £88MILLION Cannes gems raid A thief pointed a handgun at staff at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes in July He was in and out of the hotel with a hoard of jewellery in under 30 seconds The famous hotel was holding an exhibition of the valuable Chopard jewellery The jewels belonged to London-based Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev Police have so far been unable to apprehend the robber behind the heist By Steve Nolan and Peter Allen It was a brazen daylight heist that saw a lone raider make off with jewels worth around £88million from the French RIviera's most glamorous hotel and which has left detectives clueless. And four months on, the first CCTV images of a daring heist at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes have emerged as police still hunt the culprit. Staff are pictured cowering in terror as the gunman, dressed in shorts and a dark baseball cap strolls into the hotel, threatens security guards and walks out with a haul of extraordinarily expensive Chopard jewellery. The robbery, one of the biggest jewel heists in history, is over in less than 30 seconds. Caught on camera: The thief threatens one worker with a gun while a woman sobs into her hands in fear during the raid Terror: The thief is seen strolling from the hotel with a bag and box of jewels with staff still cowering in fear behind him The CCTV images were published by French newspaper Nice Matin after police finally agree to publish them in an effort to catch the thief. The jewels, which belonged to London-based Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, had been due to go on display at the luxury hotel when the man walked in through open patio doors. The footage shows staff unpacking necklaces, rings and brooches as three security guards stand nearby, one of them pacing the room. One of the guards begins to move from his spot presumably having seen the thief enter through the doors but stops in his tracks and puts his hands up when the man points a handgun at him. Preparing for display: Staff are seen unloading some of the jewels from a bag into a display case as security guards look on Powerless: A security guard puts his hands up when the thief calmly walks through the patio doors and threatens him with a gun Get on the floor: The guard then cowers on the ground as the thief stands over him brandishing his weapon Alert: Staff who are busy unpacking the jewels become aware that a raid is taking place as they watch the first guard cower on the ground when he is threatened with a gun The guard cowers on the floor as the thief makes his way around display cabinets and threatens other security staff. He points his weapon at two workers unpacking the jewels before taking a bag and display tray full of jewels. The man then calmly walks back across the room and through the same set of patio doors with his haul. He made off on foot through the exclusive Promenade de la Croisette which stretches a mile and a half along the Cannes seafront. Daring: The thief threatens a second security guard and starts to make his way around the central display as staff begin to panic in the background Terrifying: A member of staff is forced to the ground as the robber stands over him demanding the jewels Loot: The man, still pointing his gun at a member of staff, reaches down and grabs a bag and display tray full of jewels Police say that they were not aware that the jewels were due to go on display at the hotel and that exhibitors normally inform them of such a high value display. In a bitter irony, the Carlton is the setting for Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 film To Catch A Thief, a romantic thriller starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant about a jewel thief operating in the Riviera. At the time experts linked the raid to the infamous Pink Panther group after several members of the group escaped from jail in the period before it took place. According to Interpol, the Pink Panthers gained notoriety by targeting luxury watch and jewellery stores in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States, netting more than £380million. Escape: The man calmly walks out towards a packed promenade carrying the jewels. Police have still not found him Raid: A police car is seen outside the Carlton hotel after thieves fled with £35million worth of jewellery Organised gangs frequently target boutiques and hotels in and around Cannes. In May, jewellery worth £1million was stolen from a hotel safe during the annual Cannes Film Festival. An unnamed American woman working for Chopard, the Swiss jeweller and festival sponsor, was keeping the items in her second-floor room at the Cannes Novotel. Chopard had 40 staff at Cannes who tried to persuade stars to wear its products. Heist: The jewellery was at a temporary exhibition at the Carlton which was being organised by Leviev French Rivera: The Carlton hotel which was targeted by raiders is on the seafront in Cannes Julianne Moore, Cindy Crawford and Cara Delevingne were all seen wearing Chopard pieces this year. Celebrity wearers: Cara Delevingne is pictured wearing Chopard jewellery at the Cannes Film Festival in May A few days later a necklace worth £1.6million vanished after a festival party in the neighbouring resort town of Cap d'Antibes. Just days after the audacious raid at the Carlton, robbers armed with guns and grenades carried out another raid on a luxury watch boutique yeards from the hotel. The following month watches worth thousands of pounds were taken when staff at the Hyatt Regency Palais de la Mediterranee hotel in Nice after a gang of armed men threatened staff. And in September, a raider was allegedly shot dead by the owner of an upmarket gold and watch store in Nice after armed men ordered him to open the safe. He gave chase as they made their getaway and reportedly shot one of the men dead in the street outside. The 343-room InterContinental Carlton is a favourite of the stars, and is considered the "celebrity HQ" during the film festival. In August 1994, three men firing machine guns burst into the Carlton and robbed its jewellery store. Later, it was discovered the gang were firing blanks. There have been several high-profile jewellery thefts in Europe this year, including one at Brussels airport in February which saw £32million worth of diamonds taken. The biggest-ever diamond heist was at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam in 2005. Dressed in stolen uniforms belonging to the Dutch airline KLM and driving a stolen KLM van, thieves hijacked an armoured truck containing uncut diamonds worth an estimated £50million. They have never been recovered. Glittering: Penelope Cruz, left, and Dita Von Tease, right, have also been seen wearing Chopard pieces this year