Paris Robbery: ‘I Thought I Was Going To Die,’ Kim Kardashian Tells Court

American celebrity Kim Kardashian told a Paris court on Tuesday she feared she was going to be killed by masked men who robbed her at gunpoint of millions of dollars of jewellery during the French capital’s fashion week.

Ten suspects have been on trial since late April over the armed robbery in 2016, which saw jewellery worth some $10 million stolen from the reality TV star and influencer.

“Hi! I’m Kim Kardashian and I just want to thank everyone, especially the French authorities, for allowing me to testify today and tell my truth,” she told the packed court as she began giving evidence, wearing a black suit.

The trial has attracted huge media attention, with close to 500 reporters accredited, and crowds flocking around the courthouse on Paris’s historic Ile de la Cite early Tuesday with fans hoping for a glimpse of the celebrity.

“I came to Paris for Fashion Week and Paris is always a place I love so much,” Kardashian said as she gave the court her account of the night of October 2-3, 2016, when she was robbed while staying at an exclusive, discreet hotel in central Paris.

She was in her hotel room — “with my best friend downstairs, my sister and my friend and my mom, they were all out for the night” — when she heard “stomping” up the stairs and people “who I assumed were police officers because they were in uniform” entered her room.

“Then I heard one of the gentlemen say ‘ring’ a few times over, ‘ring’, ‘ring’ and he pointed his finger with an accent,” she said, adding she didn’t at first “understand it was for my jewellery”.

The man then found what he was looking for, a diamond ring given to Kardashian by her then-husband, rapper Kanye West, and valued at 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million).

The attackers then began to look for more valuables, threatened Kardashian with a gun and tied her up with a zip tie, she said, visibly emotional.

“I was certain that he was going to shoot me so I said a prayer for my family,” she said, adding she prayed “that they will have an OK life after seeing what they saw”.

She added: “I thought I was going to die.”

She also feared that she would be raped but the man with the gun “closed my legs and put a tape on my leg”.

The trial is set to end on May 23.