French detectives are hunting a homeless man who made off with a "Christmas present" of €300,000 (£264,000) after striking lucky while rummaging through bins at Paris' Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport.

Security camera footage shows the unidentified 50-year-old rifling through rubbish at terminal 2F of France's biggest air hub when he accidentally leans against a door leading to the cash depot of transport company Loomis.

Incredibly, the door was ajar after security personnel apparently failed to shut it properly.

In what Le Parisien called one of the biggest "bloopers" in the annals of crime, the man made off with the huge stash armed only with "luck and chutzpah".

"It is true that this was totally fortuitous," a source close to the inquiry told the French daily.

"This tramp benefited from a series of coincidences to hand himself a huge Christmas present."