France Grounds Aircraft With 300 Indian

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 (December 22).

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.

The local public prosecution office could not immediately be reached for comment.