Owner of French breast implant company PIP (Poly Implant Protheses) Jean-Claude Mas has been arrested according to news agency AFP.
Poly Implant Protheses (PIP) founder Jean-Claude Mas is reportedly being held at a house in Six-Fours-les-Plages in the South of France.
PIP breast implants have recently been at the centre of a safety scandal, after it was revealed that PIP breast implants were filled with non-medical grade silicone intended for mattresses.
Charges of manslaughter and involuntary harm are currently being investigating by police. Mas has admitted that the implants contained low grade silicone, but denied that they posed any health risk.
Another executive from the breast implant company is also being held, a police source told Reuters.
Around 40,000 women in the UK received PIP implants manufactured by the now-closed French company Poly Implant Prostheses (PIP).
The implants had to be removed from the market, after there were fears that the low quality silicone could rupture and leak into the body.
The French authorities shut down PIP last year after the company was found to be using cheaper industrial silicone. Paris has since recommended that women have the prosthetics removed because of fears over rupture.
The British government has emphasised however that there are no direct causal links to cancer but that patients who had breast implants on the NHS could have them replaced and removed free of charge. Women who had breast implants privately will have to discuss the issue with their surgeons independently.
In the UK, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said that removal is not necessary.