In an operation led by officers of the DCRI domestic intelligence agency, police targeted several addresses in the south of the country, including a Kurdish cultural centre in the port city of Marseille, the source said.

Two suspects arrested in the south will join a third arrested in Paris, a judicial source said. They are suspected of sending fighters from France to join rebel ranks in Kurdistan.

The PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has been battling for an independent homeland in southeastern Turkey since 1984, in a conflict that has claimed 45,000 lives.

The arrests were authorised by Thierry Fragnoli, a Paris magistrate charged with investigating terrorist offences. The operation targeted a half-dozen individuals.

Since 2009 there have been several raids against suspected PKK militants and financiers in southern France, where cities like Marseille often have substantial Kurdish expatriate communities.