Empty houses in Spain’s Costa Del Sol are being targeted by robbers, police have warned, sparking fear among British homeowners.

A villa in Benahavis was looted after thieves stole more than €500,000 (£412,500) worth of possessions, including eight luxury watches and Cartier jewellery. 

The robbery was over in just 10 minutes, enough time to take watches made by Audemars Piguet, Rolex and Romain Jerome, as well as a necklace, earrings and gold rings from Cartier.

Despite the alarm system, the suspects reportedly didn’t wait for the security of darkness to enter the property and raided it at 6.50pm.

So far, no arrests have been made in the investigation led by The Guardia Civil, as reported by Malaga Hoy.

CCTV captured at least two individuals in masks breaking the glass of the kitchen’s sliding door, before allegedly entering the bedroom, removing the safe and throwing it on the patio, before taking off with it. 

The owner received an alert to his mobile phone about the break in, but they arrived home after the suspects had left.

This follows a previous spate of luxury watch thefts, including an assault on a British tourist taking a €50,000 watch in Marbella. 

Arrests were carried out by National Police after detecting the group, which were suspected to be four men and one woman aged between 18 and 52, who acted in a coordinated manner using motorcycles.

Spanish and Italian authorities began working together two years ago when they became aware of the criminal groups specialising in watch theft in tourist hotspots.

National Police were already investigating more than 55 thefts of luxury watches in Marbella by May of this year, reported by Malaga Hoy.