Red Brigades woman held in Paris

The Red Brigades carried out many attacks in the 1970s and '80s

A former member of Italy's disbanded Red Brigades group has been arrested in Paris after 20 years on the run.

Marina Petrella, 53, was sentenced to life in absentia by a Rome court in 1992 for murder and kidnapping.

She was arrested in the Argenteuil suburb of the French capital during a routine police road check.

The leftist Red Brigades were accused of hundreds of murders in the 1970s and 80s, including the murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978.

Italian prosecutors are now attempting to extradite Petrella, who fled Italy after being freed on bail from prison in 1986.

She was later convicted in her absence of the murder of a police officer and seriously wounding his driver, among other offences.