Cryptocurrency investors have fingers cut off in kidnappings

French police are investigating a series of kidnappings of people linked to cryptocurrency after a 60-year-old man had a finger chopped off by attackers who demanded his millionaire son pay a ransom.

- Angelique Chrisafis

In the latest of several kidnappings of cryptocurrency investors in France and western Europe, the man, who owned a cryptocurrency marketing company with his son, was freed from a house south of Paris on Saturday night. He had been held for more than two days.

One of the man's fingers had been chopped off and investigators feared further mutilations could have happened if he had not been rescued.

The man, who has not been publicly identified, was abducted at 10.30am on Thursday morning as he walked down a street in Paris's 14th arrondissement. Four men in ski masks forced him into a delivery van.

He was freed by armed police in a raid at 9pm on Saturday night from a house 12 miles south of Paris, in the Essonne area. Five suspects in their 20s were arrested at the house.