French Leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon has broken new ground on social media by broadcasting a police raid on his political headquarters from his mobile phone.

A furious Mr Mélenchon, head of France Insoumise (France Unbowed), filmed as eight police officers searched the party headquarters early on Tuesday, which he slammed as an attempted “coup de force” against his party “to scare and intimidate us”.

He broadcast the raid from his smart phone on Facebook.

Police also searched the headquarters of the Parti de Gauche, a Leftist ally, and Mr Mélenchon’s former assistants. A source close to the inquiry told AFP the raids were connected to two preliminary investigations.

One concerns allegations that Mr Mélenchon’s assistants enjoyed fictitious European Parliament jobs when he was MEP. The other concerns his presidential campaign expenditure; Mr Mélenchon came fourth in the first round of French elections last year.

An irate Mr Mélenchon, an admirer of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro who recently met Jeremy Corbyn at the Labour Party conference, said the searches were based on “trumped-up evidence”.