Core drill burglaries: how the CD option of EN 1143-1 protects vault rooms

Between Christmas and New Year 2025, burglars broke into the vault room of a bank branch in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Not through the armoured door — which remained untouched — but via an adjacent room, where they used a professional core drill to bore a hole through the 60 cm vault wall. More than 3,000 safe deposit boxes were forced open; the loot is estimated at 30 to over 100 million euros — one of the biggest heists in German history.

It is no isolated case: from Hatton Garden in London (2015) to Berlin and Hamburg, core drill burglaries follow the same pattern, often over long holiday weekends. A core drill bores through reinforced concrete almost silently — precisely why professional burglars use it.

The CD option of EN 1143-1

The European standard includes a specific and often unknown designation for this risk: the CD option (Core Drill), recognisable on the certification plate — for example Grade X CD. For vault rooms and vault doors, the aim is not to delay the attack but to stop it completely: the construction is tested for hours against a heavy core drill, with special reinforcement structures in the walls and door destroying the drill bit. After Gelsenkirchen, German vault experts were unanimous: with core drill protection, the burglars would not have stood a chance.

Core drill protection in our range

The CD option is not a technology reserved for banks. Several safes in our range are available with core drill protection from Grade 4 upwards — including the Sistec Euroguard SE, the Chubbsafes TRIFORCE T2, the Wertheim xWS and the Fichet-Bauche Inviktus, as well as from Robur. For vault doors, core drill protection is available on virtually all models, and for vault rooms poured on site, special reinforcement panels in the solid construction provide the same protection from Grade 5 upwards.

Which resistance grade and which options your situation requires — for jewellers, diamond dealers, banks, public institutions, defence or private clients with a vault room — we are happy to review with you, without obligation.

 Sources: ESSA White Paper, Protection against Core Drill Attacks (January 2026) · AP News on the bank vault burglary in Gelsenkirchen