French auto giant PSA Group, the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, said Thursday its premises had been raided by France's anti-fraud squad as part of a probe into emissions.
"As part of ongoing investigations on pollutants in the automobile sector, today PSA Group has been the subject of a visit and a seizure by France's General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF)," PSA, France's biggest carmaker, said in a statement.
The fraud squad said separately that the raid was prompted by harmful emission "anomalies" found in three vehicles during pollution testing. Five PSA sites were raided, it said in a statement sent to AFP.
PSA said it was co-operating with the authorities and "confirms compliance of its vehicles in pollutant emissions in all countries where it operates".
Thursday's raid comes three months after a surprise probe at Renault, France's second-biggest automaker, as part of the government's drive to shed light on emissions practices by car manufacturers in the wake of a global emissions scandal at Germany's Volkswagen.
The German company has admitted it installed illegal software into 11 million 2.0 litre and 3.0 litre diesel engines world-wide, including VW, Porsche and Audi models, that intentionally masked the vehicle's real emissions levels during testing.
In the latest scandal to rock the sector, Japan's Mitsubishi Motors admitted that it also cheated, on fuel-efficiency tests.
The shock statement sent stock market investors fleeing, wiping $2.5 billion (2.2 billion euros) off Mitsubishi's market value in just two days.
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