GENEVA (Reuters) - The Geneva prosecutor said on Thursday (April 7) he had launched a criminal inquiry in connection with the Panama Papers, which revealed the use of offshore companies, including many set up by lawyers and financial institutions in the Swiss city.

"We have decided to open a procedure in the framework of the Panama Papers affair, but I cannot say more," Mr Olivier Jornot, Geneva's chief prosecutor, was quoted by the daily Tribune de Geneve as telling a news conference.