Four bodies pulled from Seine; man arrested in multi-murder case

Four bodies pulled from the River Seine near Choisy-le-Roi in the Paris region last week have prompted a police investigation that led to the arrest of a 24-year-old man of Algerian origin on suspicion of multiple murders. Officials say there is no confirmed link between the victims at this stage, and investigators are pursuing multiple lines of inquiry while autopsies determine the causes and dates of death.

The sequence began when a train passenger spotted a body in the water around 1 p.m. on August 13. Police recovered a second corpse about 50 meters away, then a third lodged among tree branches, and a fourth drifting with the current. The first victim has been identified as a man in his 40s who lived in Val-de-Marne. The other three victims remain unidentified, and authorities described two of the deceased as showing signs of violence, including strangulation in one case and other injuries in another. The bodies recovered were in various states of decomposition, reflecting different lengths of time in the river.

In the days that followed, court officials opened two murder investigations. On August 20, a 24-year-old Algerian man was taken into custody at the headquarters of...