Police find scores of guns at French star Delon's home
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00:00 Now authorities here in France have seized dozens of firearms from French acting legend Alain Delon.
00:06 A search of his property which is over 100 kilometers south of Paris was ordered after
00:10 a court-appointed official sent to his home noticed a weapon and then alerted a judge.
00:15 For more on this story we can bring in France 24's Olivia Salazar-Winspear.
00:19 Olivia great to see you. What more do we know?
00:21 Hi there. Now police officers searched Delon's home and found 72 weapons and over 3,000 rounds
00:26 of ammunition there. That was because a judge who supervises the actor's legal guardianship
00:33 flagged up a gun at his home earlier this month. The 88 year old actor is actually
00:38 mise-su-to-tel here in France which means that he there is a judge tasked with managing his personal
00:44 and financial matters because he's deemed incapable either physically or mentally of doing so. That
00:49 was at the request of his sons. Now for now the authorities are investigating weapons in the
00:54 categories A, B and C. That is A military grade weapons i.e. assault rifles, B semi-automatic
01:01 weapons often hunting weapons and C well that's actually hunting or sports weapons a shotgun.
01:08 Now Alain Delon is an iconic figure of course here in France but he hasn't been in the public
01:12 eye for quite some time now and he has a bit of a troubled personal life doesn't he?
01:17 Yeah he does. There's a family feud going on and he's also been in quite poor health. Now Alain
01:21 Delon just to remind viewers he was an absolute icon in the 60s and 70s starred in Visconti films
01:26 like The Leopard, Rocco and His Brothers, The Samurai directed by Jean-Pierre Melville often
01:31 known as a tough leading man or a gangster role but as I said there was that family feud between
01:36 his sons on one side and his daughter on the other. His sons accused the daughter Anoushka
01:41 of trying to prevent him from dying at his home here in France and taking him to Switzerland
01:47 for medical care. They say that that would be for tax reasons so that she could perhaps protect more
01:52 of their potential inheritance. Now this news of course Olivier raises the question of gun
01:58 ownership here in France and how easy it could be to acquire these weapons. Well legally it's
02:03 actually very difficult to acquire a weapon here in France if you're a civilian for example if you
02:07 want one of those hunting licenses you have to undergo a psychological evaluation, you're
02:13 automatically refused if you have a criminal record and if you do get that license it needs
02:17 to be renewed every single year. Now around a million people in France have that hunting
02:22 license within that legal framework which is actually one of the highest levels in Europe
02:27 and hunting accidents are on the rise it's quite a controversial subject here in France. During the
02:31 presidential election last time some candidates were saying that there should be tighter
02:35 regulations so people aren't shot accidentally in the countryside. It is believed that anywhere
02:40 between 10 and 20 million illegal weapons are circulating at any time here in France. For
02:47 example you can buy a Kalashnikov on the black market for around 3 000 euros and they have often
02:53 been used in drug-related criminal incidents in Paris and Marseille for example. So in terms of
03:00 the penalties that Alain Delon could incur possession of a gun without the correct registration
03:06 which is what he's being investigated for carries a fine of 75 000 euros and up to five years in prison.