1st Ld Writethru: Man arrested for alleged attacks on website of French presidential candidate Le Pen

A man, suspected of having regularly attacked the campaign website of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, has been arrested by French cyber crime police, Le Pen's National Front (FN) party announced on Thursday.

"We have identified several of these hackers and have sent all the relevant data to the police in the context of a complaint," said David Rachline, Le Pen's campaign manager, and Gaetan Bertrand, communication chief of FN in a statement, indicating that the individual could be "close to extreme left-wing circles".

"Throughout the presidential campaign, and especially since the beginning of 2017, our campaign site has been the subject of regular and targeted cyber attacks, using different methods well known to hackers," said the statement.

The prosecutor's office in Nanterre, a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, confirmed that a young man had been arrested this week and that he had "admitted the facts" during his custody.

The seized computer is still under further investigation, the prosecutor's office said.

A preliminary inquiry was opened last weekend after the far-right party lodged a complaint about the alleged attacks, according to local newspaper Le Figaro.

Le Pen is to face off with centrist candidate and former minister of economy Emmanuel Macron in a runoff vote of the presidential election on May 7. Endit