Man 'boarded Calais ferry with dead mum in car' Published duration 25 November 2019

image copyright Google image caption The man was reportedly stopped boarding a ferry in Calais

A British man who reportedly boarded a car ferry in France with his dead mother in the passenger seat has been arrested.

The 86-year-old woman's body was discovered in Calais on Friday as the man prepared to travel to the UK.

French prosecutors said the man, from the Isle of Wight, was arrested and taken to a hospital.

The Foreign Office said it was liaising with the authorities in France.

The man was stopped as he attempted to board the ferry, prosecutors told local paper Le Journal Du Centre

Prosecutor Pascal Marconville told the AFP agency: "It was at the moment where they had to get out of the vehicle that the son realised she had died.

"She died because of her age and a cancerous pathology which could explain the marks found on the body, which are in fact bruises.

"According to the son, it would be linked to recurring falls."

A spokeswoman from the Foreign Office said: "We are aware of the death of a British woman and the arrest of a British man in Calais."