French police search VW offices in emissions probe

PARIS (Reuters) - French police have carried out searches at Volkswagen offices in France, the Paris Prosecutor's office said on Sunday, as part of an investigation following revelations the carmaker rigged vehicle diesel emissions tests.

Police searched on Friday Volkswagen's main French office in Villers-Cotterets northeast of Paris and another VW office at Roissy near Paris' main airport, seizing computer material, an official at the Prosecutor's office said.

A Volkswagen spokesman confirmed the company had been searched by French police on Friday and was cooperating with the authorities, declining to comment further.

The Paris Prosecutor is conducting a preliminary inquiry into suspected "aggravated deception" by Volkswagen.

The German group has said 946,092 vehicles in France were equipped with the EA 189 engines potentially affected by the emissions data manipulation carried out by the company worldwide.

Volkswagen has said up to 11 million vehicles worldwide could contain banned software, and on Thursday announced it would recall around 8.5 million vehicles in the European Union.

(Reporting by Sophie Louet in Paris and Jan Schwartz in Hamburg, Writing by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Mark Potter)