Authorities have seized 72 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition from the home of legendary actor Alain Delon, in a new twist in the tale of a succession drama playing out in the French media.

The cache of weapons – and a shooting range – was found during a police raid at the actor’s chateau in Douchy, southeast of Paris, where the 88-year-old has been receiving medical care amid concerns over his declining health.

Delon “has no authorisation that would allow him to own a firearm”, said local prosecutor Jean-Cédric Gaux.

The local gendarmarie was called to the luxury estate last week after Anouchka Delon spoke to a fashion magazine about her father’s ‘‘collection’’ of weapons, Le Parisien reported.

Anouchka told Elle magazine that she goes “always with her bodyguard” to the family property.

She added that her brothers “walk around the house armed” when they visit the La Brûlerie, the Douchy mansion, believing they are “in the Wild West”.

Anouchka, the 33-year-old daughter of Delon and Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen, has for months been involved in a public dispute with her brothers Anthony and Alain-Fabien.

Anthony, 59, the only child of Delon and his wife Nathalie, has accused his half-sister of hiding the results of cognitive tests that doctors had performed on their father in Switzerland.

Anouchka’s younger brother Alain-Fabien, 29, then released a secret recording of her “dripping insinuations” into their father’s ear.

In a rare display of unity, the three siblings last year launched legal action to evict Hiromi Rollin, a Japanese-American actor who has been caring for Delon and living with him since he had a stroke in 2019.

Rollin has claimed she is Delon’s partner. The children, however, have insisted she was not in a romantic relationship with their father.

In a legal complaint that culminated in police raiding Rollin’s apartment in Paris, the siblings claimed Rollin had engaged in ‘‘moral harrassment’’ and had sought to make Delon reliant on her.

“It is to be feared that the children’s interest is purely pecuniary; and that if they are so quick to point the finger at Madame Rollin, it is because they hope one day to draw a financial benefit,” Rollin’s lawyer said in response to the allegations.

The latest development in the saga is not the first time Delon has been investigated over firearms.

In 2011, police in Geneva were called to his apartment to reports a teenage girl was shot during a party held by the then 17-year-old Alain-Fabien.

The girl was injured by a bullet accidentally discharged from a vintage pistol during the party, Le Parisien reported.

Delon is well-known for playing gun-toting gangsters in several of his most famous films, including Borsalino and The Samurai.