Fake 'jihadists' fined over Cannes film festival stunt

The three organisers of a publicity stunt featuring fake militant attackers who sparked panic during the Cannes Film Festival were fined 2,500 euros [$2,800] on Friday.

Six men wearing combat dress and masks swept up to the luxury Eden Roc hotel in a high-powered dinghy that was flying a black flag made to look like the one used by the Islamic State [IS] group.

The production team also hired a helicopter to fly low overhead as the dinghy approached the Cap d'Antibes on the French Riviera. 

"They came in on a dinghy, dressed in black to film themselves as if it was an invasion by Daesh and they really scared people who were swimming in the sea," prosecutor Thierry Bonifay told a court in Grasse near Cannes, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

The organisers of the stunt were prosecuted for "aggravated violence". Four other people, who were actors taking part in the stunt, were cleared.

The team making the commercial for the Paris-based internet company Oraxy had no official permission, according to a report in Nice Matin newspaper.

The start-up company had since apologised for the stunt, saying it did not intend to frighten people.

Following the scare an anonymous justice official told AFP that the company was "likely to pay very dearly," for its practical joke.

IS claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks on Paris in November last year in which 130 people were killed.

The group also claimed one of its followers drove the truck that killed 86 people on the Nice seafront, along the south coast from Cannes, on July.