FRANCE- Not less than twenty-one people have been arrested by French Police as part of efforts on an allegation that horsemeat used to develop medicine was illegally sold for human consumption.

The move violates French law which states that any animal subject to medical testing cannot then be sold to be eaten, as horsemeat used for medical research by pharmaceutical firm Sanofi ended up in the food chain.

In a Europe-wide health scare in February, horsemeat was found in millions of ready-meals labelled as containing only beef.

This appears to be a different type of horsemeat scandal to the one that preoccupied Europe earlier this year, our correspondent adds.

It was gathered that Police were acting on a tip-off that between 2010 and 2012 hundreds of horses, including some previously owned by the pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, were sold to abattoirs.

More than 100 police officers were involved in raids at several Sanofi offices and at various abattoirs, including one in Gerona in northern Spain.

Sources said those arrested included the supposed ringleader - who was arrested in the south-western town of Narbonne - the vets he employed, meat traders and IT specialists.