Pavel Durov, the CEO of messaging app Telegram, has been arrested in France.

On Monday evening, the Paris prosecutor said in a statement that Mr Durov was being held in custody as part of a cyber-crime investigation. The statement mentioned 12 different offences under investigation that it said were linked to organised crime.

These included illicit transactions, child pornography, fraud and the refusal to disclose information to authorities, the prosecutor said.

Telegram said in a statement that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner is responsible for abuse of that platform”.