LONDON (AFP) - Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny is helping to finance a rescue package to save an accordion factory in the French town where he grew up, it was reported on Friday.

The Guardian said that the 28-year-old international is part of an investment group that has put up 600,000 euros to save the Maugein factory from closure.

France's oldest accordion factory is situated in Tulle in the Correze, the player's home town and president Francois Hollande's constituency.

Founded in 1919, the business was threatened with closure after struggling to compete with cheaper accordions made in Eastern Europe and China.