No croaks: French police intervene in neighbours’ frog row

Gendarmes turn up at home of 92-year-old woman after receiving complaint about amphibian guests in her garden

A culture war has broken out in a small village in the Savoie region of the northern Alps where three large frogs are threatened with being silenced.

In the latest example of a conflict of rights between town and country, nature and neighbour, 92-year-old Colette Ferry opened her door in the small village of Frontenex - population around 1,800 - to two gendarmes recently who said they would be taking away three amphibians that have taken up residence in her garden pond.