Australian hockey player arrested in Paris for buying cocaine

PARIS :A player on the Australian men's hockey team was arrested in Paris and is being held in custody, the Australian Olympic Committee said on Wednesday, with the Paris prosecutor's office saying he had been detained for buying cocaine.

"Police officers who witnessed a cocaine transaction at the foot of a building in the ninth arrondissement (of Paris), on the night of August 6 to 7, arrested the seller, born in December 2006, and the buyer, born in September 1995 in Australia," the prosecutor's office said.

Australia's Olympic Committee said no charges had been laid against the member of the team, whose identity was not officially disclosed. It did not comment on the reason for the arrest.

"The AOC is continuing to make enquiries and arrange support for the team member," the committee said in a statement.

French media cited police sources as saying the Australian hockey player had bought about one gram of cocaine.

There was no immediate comments from the International Hockey Federation, the sport's global governing body.

The Australian men's team was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament with a 2-0 loss to the Netherlands on Sunday.

(Additional reporting by Nick Mulvenney, Forrest Crellin, Leigh Thomas, Sudip Kar-Gupta; Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Toby Davis and Christian Radnedge)