NEW YORK (AFP/REUTERS) - Reality star Kim Kardashian jetted home to the United States on Monday (Oct 3) to be comforted by husband Kanye West, after being tied up at gunpoint in Paris and robbed of jewellery worth US$10 million (S$13.65 million).
The multi-millionaire mother of two and wife of the American rap superstar, was holed up at a luxury apartment in New York's swish Tribeca neighbourhood "badly shaken but physically unharmed" after the assault.
Kardashian and her husband stepped out of the back seat of a car after a convoy bristling with bodyguards pulled up to the apartment block, as seen in a video posted on celebrity news website TMZ.
Kardashian kept her head down and ignored questions from reporters about how she was doing, her long hair hiding her face. She wore baggy eggplant-colored pants, towering black stilettos and a plunging black top.
West kept to his usual street cool of jogging bottoms, green anorak and a grey hoodie as he walked behind his wife into the building, where a five-bedroom penthouse was recently on the market for US$24.5 million.
Kardashian matriarch Kris Jenner also went into the apartment building, an AFP photographer said, dressed in black and also ignoring questions from reporters about her and her daughter's state of mind.
The reality star's friends, including Jonathan Cheban and La La Anthony, turned up at her residence shortly after her arrival and also avoided talking to the media.
Kardashian has yet to speak out publicly about the assault.
French police said the 35-year-old was "tied up and locked in the bathroom" of a residence in the chic Madeleine district of Paris, near the city's main department stores. The crime occurred at 2.30am French time (9am Singapore time) on Monday.
A police source said the robbers made off with a ring worth around US$4.5 million and a case of jewellery with a value of US$5.6 million. Two mobile phones were also taken.
Police said five men were involved and two of them entered Kardashian's bedroom in the luxury residence where she has stayed before.
The robbers zip-tied Kardashian's hands with plastic handcuffs, duct-taped her mouth and ankles, dumping her in the bathtub, TMZ reported. The star told police that she feared she was about to be raped, the website said.
The robbers allegedly kept saying "ring, ring" and Kardashian told them where to find a new ring she got from her husband - a photograph of which she posted to social media last Friday - TMZ added.
E! News, whose US network broadcasts the Keeping Up With the Kardashians television show, on Monday quoted a source close to Kardashian as saying she feared for her life. "She begged for them to let her live and (said) she has babies at home... She thought they were for sure going to kill her," the unidentified source told E! News.
Kardashian's spokesman said "two armed masked men dressed as police officers" burst into her room. Another member of the gang restrained the building's security guard during the robbery, but he was unhurt, police said.
Investigators say the assailants may have fled on bicycles. The star's bodyguard, Pascal Duvier, was absent at the time, providing security for Kardashian's sister Kourtney at a Paris nightclub, an investigation source said.
Kardashian flew out of France on a private jet after being questioned by police about the robbery. She had been in the French capital attending Paris Fashion Week, including catwalk shows by Balenciaga and Givenchy.
The robbery set social media alight, with some users making fun of the latest headline-grabbing event for a TV star who documents her life continually on screen and on social media. Most comments, however, were supportive. Talk show host James Corden said on Twitter that people "would do well to remember that she's a mother, a daughter, a wife, a friend. Be nice or shut up".
Paris has seen several armed robberies on high-end jewelry stores in recent months and the Kardashian incident could add to worries about safety in Paris, hit by a series of attacks by Islamist militants last year.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo sought to downplay the robbery, saying it was "a very rare act that happened in a private space".
