French police are reported to have arrested the daughter of a Monaco heiress fatally injured in a shooting in May, reports The Guardian.
Officers picked up 19 suspects on Monday in raids in Nice and Marseille in the south of France and Rennes in the west, as part of their inquiry into the assassination of the wealthy property owner Hélène Pastor, a friend of the principality's royal family.
Among those believed arrested is the murdered woman's daughter, Sylvia, and her businessman son-in-law. A possible contract killing is among the theories being investigated.
Pastor, 77, so well known in Monaco that she was nicknamed "the vice-princess", was shot on 6 May in what police described as an ambush as she left a hospital in Nice where she had been visiting her son Gildo, who had suffered a stroke.
In the attack, a gunman wielding a hunting rifle and a sawn-off shotgun opened fire twice on Pastor's Lancia Voyager car, injuring her and her chauffeur, Mohamed Darwich, 64. Darwich died four days later. Pastor was taken to hospital with face, neck, chest and abdomen injuries, and died a fortnight after the attack.
CCTV images showed the gunman running off with a second man. The car continued a further 20 metres before crashing into a parked vehicle and coming to a halt.
Afterwards a French judge opened an official inquiry into "attempted murder and assassination by an organised group". Police said they were looking into whether the attack had been carried out by Italian crime gangs.
Pastor was the sister of Michel Pastor, a former chairman of Monaco football club who died in February. She was described by shocked friends as a "model of wisdom and discretion".
Read more of this report from The Guardian.