French police on Thursday morning arrested the owner of Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) Jean-Claude Mas, who has got involved in the scandal of producing breast implants with unauthorized materials, questioning him on charges of homicide and involuntary injury.

Photo: Reuters
The French company PIP was found to replace the medical-grade silicone in its implants with unauthorized material that caused abnormally high rupture rates of its implants.

France's prosecutors earlier started an investigation into the scandal in the country where more than 2,700 women have lodged complaints against PIP.

But the PIP owner denied last October any dangers of the faulty material, insisting that non-medical grade silicone gel that his company had used for the implants was of "better quality."

So far, French health authorities have confirmed 20 cases of cancer reporting by French women wearing PIP breast implants, including 16 with breast cancer.

In December, the French government advised 30,000 women to have their PIP implants removed because of an increased risk of rupture to avoid the risk of cancer though no conclusive evidence was found linking to the disease.

PIP was once the world's third-largest producer of silicone implants. Up to 500,000 women worldwide are thought to wear PIP breast implants. Some experts said up to one in 10 could have ruptured. Its products were banned and the company went bankrupt in 2010.

PIP director Claude Couty was also arrested early Thursday morning.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet