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French police were questioning two people on Sunday after Disneyland Paris was hired for an alleged fake marriage ceremony involving a girl aged about nine.

The theme park complex outside Paris had been hired for what was presumed to be a genuine private wedding early on Saturday morning before opening hours.

But Disneyland staff and security called police when they noticed that the so-called bride, wearing a wedding dress, was too young.

After police investigated, the local prosecutor’s office in Meaux said the event was not a real marriage ceremony.

“The event turned out to have been staged, the guests themselves were all actors,” the deputy local prosecutor told Agence France-Presse. “So it wasn’t a wedding but the staging of a wedding, which was filmed with around 100 extras. They had privately hired Disneyland Paris claiming it was a real wedding.”

Four people were arrested and taken into police custody. Two were still being questioned on Sunday on suspicion of fraud and money-laundering.

They included a man said to have been the fake groom, who is alleged to have organised the event. He is 22 and thought to be British, AFP reported. A 24-year-old Latvian woman was also being questioned.

The young girl, who is Ukrainian, was not found to have suffered any “violence or constraint”, the prosecutor’s office said. Her mother, aged 41, was released from questioning, as was a 55-year-old Latvian man.

Disneyland Paris is Europe’s most-visited theme park and can be hired for weddings at a very high price outside opening hours, with its Sleeping Beauty Castle as a backdrop.

It was unclear why a fake wedding might have been staged there, and what the child’s role was. The local daily paper, Le Parisien, reported that extras who were to attend in the role of guests were taken by bus to the area.

One of the extras who was hired to attend what she thought was a real wedding told France Inter radio: “I saw the panic of the Disney people, then, through the window, I saw a small child with a wedding dress on. A woman was carrying her in her arms and that’s when I understood that the child was really young.”

Disneyland Paris told the station: “A private event booked at our destination was immediately cancelled by our staff after irregularities were identified. Police were called and arrived quickly.”

The theme park said it was cooperating with authorities and had filed its own legal complaint.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ng-child-bride