The architect of the Paris airport terminal that collapsed, killing four people, was the subject of a fraud probe over his role in a project in China, the Paris public prosecutor's office said on Friday.
Media reports said a preliminary inquiry was launched in France last July over suspicions of financial improprieties relating to Paul Andreu's role in the construction of an opera house in Beijing.
A spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office in Paris confirmed the reports and said authorities had subsequently searched Andreu's home and office but no decision had yet been taken to launch a full probe, under French law the final step before charges are pressed.
She gave no details of what suspicions were raised against Andreu over the Beijing project. Efforts to contact Andreu at his Paris office were unsuccessful.
Andreu, who rushed back from Beijing to Paris on hearing that part of the roof of Terminal 2E at Charles de Gaulle Airport had collapsed on Sunday, said earlier he was baffled at how it happened.
