Licio Gelli, the former grandmaster of the Italian P2 masonic lodge (with links to several Latin American countries) attempted suicide soon after his arrest in the south of France yesterday.

Gelli was sentenced to twelve years in jail for his part in the 1982 collapse of the Ambrosiano bank in Italy, but disappeared from his home in Arrezzo in May when due to report to the police while on parole during appeal proceedings.

The seventy-nine-year-old Gelli, who was arrested by French and Italian police in Cannes on Thursday, was said by police sources to be in prison hospital awaiting the outcome of extradition proceedings when he tried to take his own life.