Ecclestone’s mother-in-law kidnapped for ransom

Criminals in Brasil have reportedly kidnapped the mother-in-law of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and are demanding a ransom of $36.5m (€33.3m).

Aparecida Schunck, the 67-year-old mother of Mr Ecclestone's wife Fabiana Flosi, was seized in Sao Paulo on Friday night, according to Brzilian news magazines Veja and Globo reported.

Police in the city have not yet commented.

Ecclestone, 85, is one of the most powerful men in sport and is worth an estimated $3.1bn (€2.8bn).

He married Flosi in 2012, three years after meeting the now 38-year-old at the Brazilian Grand Prix. He divorced his former wife of 25 years, Croatian model Slavica Radic, to be with her and they live in the UK.

The kidnappers have demanded that the ransom, a record amount for an abduction in Brazil, be paid in pounds sterling and divided into four bags of cash, Veja reported.

The high profile snatching comes less than two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

There is heightened security in the country, which records hundreds of kidnappings every year.

Ecclestone has not commented on the reports.