France grounds aircraft with 300 Indians on board

PARIS, Dec 23 (Reuters): France has grounded a charter flight headed to Nicaragua carrying 303 Indian passengers, and a judicial investigation into the conditions and purposes of the trip has been launched, local officials in the eastern Marne region said on Friday.

French media including BFM TV and France 3 reported that authorities were probing suspicions of human trafficking.

The flight, carried out by a Romanian charter company, had departed from Dubai on Thursday and landed at the small Vatry airport for a technical stopover when police intervened, the Marne prefect's office said in an e-mailed statement.

"The reception hall at Vatry airport was transformed into a waiting area with individual beds to provide passengers with the best possible reception conditions", it said, adding that a judicial investigation had been opened.