Paris, France - A French modeling agent has been arrested as part of an investigation involving the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Paris public prosecutor said on Thursday.

The suspect, who is accused of rape, sexual assault of minors over and under 15 years of age, as well as human trafficking, was arrested on Wednesday, the public prosecutor's office said.

The prosecutor had already initiated investigations in the summer of 2019 and searched a modeling agency in Paris's fashionable eighth district.

The French investigations are looking into possible criminal offenses committed on French territory as well as involving French victims or perpetrators, the judiciary had said earlier.

Epstein (66) was found dead in his New York prison cell last August while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Prosecutors accused him of luring underage girls, some as young as 14, to engage in sexual acts with him at both his New York and Florida homes.