A wine cellar Photo: IC

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 on July 2.

Employees at the Maison Rostang restaurant in the northeastern 17th district near the Arc de Triomphe discovered a 50-centimeter hole in the wall of the wine cellar that was made during the break-in on July 1, the source told AFP. 

The cellar is being renovated.

The police source said the stolen wine could be worth as much as 400,000-600,000 euros ($450,000-680,000).

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.