A Brit was arrested on Sunday after allegedly staging a mock wedding with a nine-year-old girl in front of a crowd of 100 people at Disneyland Paris. The 22-year-old was allegedly the "groom" during the strange ceremony, which took place at dawn on Saturday beneath the theme park's Sleeping Beauty castle. He told police the ceremony was held to make a video for social media.

Staff at the site reportedly intervened to stop what was going on and called the police when they spotted the child, a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl, in a bridal dress. The iconic park can be booked outside of public visiting hours, and the organisers allegedly reserved it for a function that they said would be a genuine wedding ceremony.

According to The Times, video obtained by French station BFM TV showed about 100 guests sitting prior to the start of the ceremony, as a female violin trio played in front of a stage covered in flowers. The event had cost the organiser €130,000 (£111,229) according to BFM.

Alexandre Verney, assistant prosecutor for the Seine-et-Marne département, said: "Four people were arrested and questioned: the groom, who was believed to be the organiser of the event and is presumed to be British and aged 22; the mother of the child, a 41-year-old Ukrainian woman; and two Latvian nationals aged 55 and 24.

"It wasn't a wedding but a staged wedding that was to be filmed with a hundred extras. They privatised Disneyland, claiming that it was a real marriage."

The mum and the eldest Latvian were released following a medical examination of the girl, which revealed no mistreatment or constraint.

However, the Brit and the other Latvian were held for questioning over possible money laundering and fraud offences, according to the prosecutor's office.

Disney thanked its staff for putting a stop to proceedings. A witness told Le Parisien: "We were not told at any time that it was about a film shoot.

"We all thought we were going to be part of a wedding. Everyone was stunned. No one expected this. Disneyland does things very well. They immediately cancelled when they understood that the bride was a kid. We were sickened by that."