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DNA shows man detained in Glasgow is not French fugitive

Police Scotland have confirmed that a man arrested at Glasgow airport on Friday on suspicion of being Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, wanted in France over the murders of his wife and four children in Nantes in 2011, has been released after DNA and finger print comparisons have proven he is not, contrary to earlier widespread media reports, the fugitive.

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A man arrested at Glasgow Airport on suspicion of murdering his family eight years ago was detained by mistake, reports BBC News.

Identity checks have shown that the man is not Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, Police Scotland confirmed.

Dupont de Ligonnès, 58, has been on the run since his wife and four children were found buried at their home in Nantes in 2011.

The detained man was stopped at the airport after arriving on a flight from Paris.

In a statement Police Scotland said: "On Friday, 11 October 2019, a man was arrested at Glasgow Airport following information provided to police.

"He was held in police custody in connection with a European Arrest Warrant issued by the French Authorities.

"Inquiries were undertaken to confirm the man's identity.

"Following the results of these tests it has been confirmed that the man arrested is not the man suspected of crimes in France.

"The man has since been released."

Mr Dupont de Ligonnès is suspected of murdering his wife Agnès, 48, and his children, Arthur, 21, Thomas, 18, Anne, 16, and Benoît, 13, whose bodies, as well as those of the family's two dogs, were discovered buried in the garden of the family house in Nantes in 2011.

The murders, known as the "Nantes slaughter", deeply shocked France at the time.

French prosecutors previously said he killed his victims in a "methodical execution", firing two bullets from a silenced weapon at close range into their heads, before he rolled them in lime and buried them under cement.

Read more of this report from BBC News.