The suspects are a 22-, 23- and a 31-year-old from the Novo mesto area, two men from Ljubljana, aged 38 and and 42, and a 28-year-old from Jesenice, the head of the criminal police unit at the Ljubljana Police Administration Branko Japelj told the press on Monday.

According to the police, the oldest four organised the robbery that took place last Tuesday and got the youngest two to carry it out. The 42-year-old and the 28-year-old picked the jewellery store, which the group then monitored for a while, and the 22-year-old is suspected of shooting the clerk dead.

A day before the robbery, the group got together in a Ljubljana hotel, where the 31-year-old handed a gun to the 22-year-old.

The two youngest suspects came to the store on foot and put on masks. They started taking the jewellery but were caught by the clerk and fired two bullets at him. The clerk reportedly also fired one bullet.

The autopsy suggests that the suspects also beat the clerk, as he suffered a head trauma.

The police have so far found EUR 80,000 worth of jewellery but believe more had been taken from the store.

The majority of the suspects were arrested last week, while the the 28-year-old was apprehended today. They all admitted to the crime.

Japelj said some of them were drug addicts, some ex convicts and four have a criminal record.

The death of the clerk is currently being treated as manslaughter, but the prosecution might change it to murder, Japelj said.

The number of robberies in Slovenia is on an increase, as in the first six months of 2011 the number had already caught up with the figures from previous years. What is more, robbers already killed two persons this year, which is something that has not happened in 20 years.

According to the police, 52 robberies were committed in the first six months of 2011, almost a half of them in self-service stores. Last year, the police recorded some 80 robberies, while the numbers for previous years are significantly lower.

In 2009, the police recorded 53 robberies, while the number stood at 44 in both 2007 and 2008. The damage in those years amounted to between EUR 235,000 and EUR 550,000, while in the first six months of 2011, it stood at around EUR 480,000.