Jewel 'thief swallows £8,000 diamond at gem show' (and police have given him laxatives to get it back)

A man was was arrested for attempted theft and taken to hospital for a dose of laxatives after swallowing a diamond worth more than £8,000 at a gem exhibition in Sri Lanka.
The 32-year-old Chinese suspect had asked the stall owner for a close inspection of the diamond on the opening day of Facets Sri Lanka, an annual jewellery show in the capital Colombo.
'He had taken the diamond out of a display cabinet and appeared to be appraising it and suddenly put it in his mouth,' said a police officer at the scene, who declined to be named.

Under arrest: A security official, left, and uniformed police escort a Chinese national, centre, who is accused of stealing a £8,500 diamond by swallowing it

'The owner saw this and alerted us,' he said, adding that the man was arrested and taken to Colombo National Hospital to be given laxatives.
A spokesman at the hospital said today that an X-ray had been taken and that officers were holding the suspect under observation.
'I believe the X-ray confirmed something that looked like a stone. The man has been taken away and he is in police custody,' Pushpa Soya said.

Precious: Sri Lankan stall owner Suresh de Silva shows a 1.5 carot diamond which is similar to the stolen stone

Photographs showed the man, dressed in a black shirt and jeans with his head bowed, being escorted from the exhibition centre by uniformed policemen.
Police said the stall owner valued the missing diamond at 1.8 million rupees (£8,550).
Sri Lanka does not mine diamonds but it has a large gem and jewellery industry and is famed for its blue sapphires.