Nicaragua-bond plane with 303 Indians on board grounded in France

France has grounded a charter flight headed to Nicaragua carrying 303 Indian passengers, and a judicial investigation into the conditions and purposes of the trip has been launched.

The flight, carried out by Romanian charter company Legend Airlines, had departed from Dubai and landed at the small Vatry airport on Thursday afternoon for a technical stopover when police intervened, the Marne prefect's office said in a statement on Friday.

"The reception hall at Vatry airport was transformed into a waiting area with individual beds to provide passengers with the best possible reception conditions," the prefect's office said.

A unit specialising in organised crime is investigating suspicions of human trafficking and arrested two people for questioning, the Paris public prosecution office said, adding that authorities had been tipped off by an anonymous informant.

The airline and Indian foreign ministry did not reply for comment.