PARIS, July 3 — Thieves have broken into the cellar of a top luxury restaurant in Paris and have made off with at least 150 bottles of prized wine estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of euros, a police source said yesterday.

Employees at the Maison Rostang restaurant in the northeastern 17th district near the Arc de Triomphe discovered a 50-centimetre (20-inch) hole in the wall of the wine cellar that was made during the break-in on Monday, the source told AFP.

The restaurant has two stars from the prestigious Michelin food guide and is described as having a "magnificent wine list” which includes bottles from the famed Petrus and Romanee Conti vineyards.

The cellar is currently being renovated.

The police source said the stolen wine could be worth as much as €400,000-600,000 (RM1.87-2.8 million).

In 2009, French police arrested a 44-year-old man on suspicion of having stolen more than 500 bottles of fine wine worth hundreds of thousands of euros from some of the best restaurants in Paris. — AFP-Relaxnews