ZURICH: Film director Roman Polanski was arrested by Swiss police as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the US for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl, authorities said last night.

Polanski, 76, had been due to receive a prize for his life's work at the festival yesterday evening.

Government ministers, movie directors, writers and intellectuals expressed shock and outrage at his detention.

In Paris, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "dumbfounded" by Polanski's arrest. Other reports said France and Poland are to ask the US to drop the charges and consider a presidential pardon over the case.

Calling Polanski, who won Best Director Oscar for The Pianist in 2003, one of the greatest film directors of our time, the festival directors said they had "received this news with great consternation and shock".

Police in Zurich said Polanski's arrest had been carried out on instructions from the Federal Justice Department in Berne.

Polanski was arrested in the US in the late 1970s and charged with giving drugs and alcohol to a 13-year-old girl and having unlawful sex with her at a photographic shoot at Jack Nicholson's Hollywood home.

Maintaining the girl was sexually experienced and had consented, Polanski spent 42 days in prison undergoing psychiatric tests but fled the country before being sentenced.

The Swiss Justice Ministry said US authorities had sought the arrest of the director around the world since 2005.

The French-Polish national is married to French actress Emanuelle Seigner, with whom he has two children.