The theme song of this popular James Bond movie with the same title sung by Shirley Bassey must have been the favourite film of machine-gun toting robbers who seized on Monday night $50 million in diamonds from a plane in Brussels.

The heist, which occurred at the Zaventem Airport, was pulled off by eight heavily armed and hooded thieves disguised as police, disclosed Anja Bijnen, spokeswoman of Brussels prosecutors.

The Antwerp World Diamond Centre, the global dealers' syndicate, said the heist was one of the biggest in history. About $200 million worth of stones are shipped in and out daily of Antwerp, the world capital of diamond-cutting.

Reports said the eight opened security barriers and sped towards a Swiss passenger plane on the runway, forced the cargo hold open and took at least 120 packages of the precious stone. The 120 packs were only a partial haul from the shipment.

The robbery was over in minutes with no shots fired and zero injuries. The armed men then sped off through the same gap in security cordon they opened in front of ground staff and travelers. The getaway vehicle was later found burnt near the airport.

Passenger did not see the incident, but the jet, bound for Zurich, did not leave Brussels. The plane was on a regular flight operated by Swiss Air's partner, Helvetic Airways.

Ms Bijnens said the hijacked gems were unpolished and cut diamonds.

The Monday night heist, however, was not the biggest. Below is a list of the top 5 diamond robberies in history.

1. December 2008: Haul - $107 million forcibly taken from the Harry Winston store in Paris, France by four armed men disguised in female clothes and wigs, who were eventually caught and jailed.

2. February 2003: Haul - $100 million stolen from the vaults of the Antwerp Diamond Centre, made up of stones, jewels, gold and securities.

3. August 2009: Haul - $65 million stolen from Graff Diamonds in London, England. The thieves were made to appear like gems buyers through alteration of skin color and prosthetics, but were eventually caught because of an incriminating cell phone left in their getaway vehicle.

4. February 2005: Haul - €75 million worth of diamonds and jewel for shipment to Antwerp stolen in a KLM vehicles at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport

5. March 2007: Haul - $28 million worth of diamonds stolen from the vaults of ABN Amro Bank in Antwerp, Belgium by a depositor with a VIP access to the vault. He carted off about 120,000 carats of diamonds.

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