Car cleaners at a Russian firm got a surprise when they cleaned out a vacuum cleaner this week: a diamond pendant worth up to 300,000 euros
($475,400).

"I didn't know how much it was worth at first so I got a jeweller to come around and he said it was worth as much as 300,000 euros", Vladimir Shapiro, owner of the car cleaning firm in Russia's northern city of St Petersburg, told Reuters.

"When I heard the value my jaw dropped to the floor", he said. "You would have to notice losing something like this".

He said he was not going to disclose much about the pendant so that he could return the jewel to its true owner.