Bid for Mata Hari's haunt

The Emir of Qatar is reported to be planning to re-open the Elysee Palace hotel in Paris where Mata Hari was arrested for spying.

The French business magazine Challenges reported that the Emir has made an offer of €400 million ($796 million) to buy the former grand hotel in the Champs Elysees from HSBC, which uses it as its French headquarters.

Once one of the French capital's most luxurious hotels, it opened in 1897 but went bankrupt in 1920 - three years after one of its most notorious guests was arrested in one of its suites.

It was subsequently turned into offices.

Mata Hari, the stage name of the Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan Margaretha Geertruida Zelle-McLeod, was accused of spying for Germany during World War I and was shot dead by firing squad.

She is said by some HSBC staff to haunt the building.

If the Qatari plan goes ahead, the new hotel will have luxury stores and restaurants along its 50m avenue frontage, which now consists of cash machines and posters for HSBC savings plans.

- INDEPENDENT