PARIS: Desperate relatives of two French detainees in Iran demanded `proof of life` on Friday after Israel struck their Tehran prison this week and a lawyer denounced their `forced disappearance`.

French national Cecile Kohler, a 40-year-old woman, and her 72-year-old partner Jacques Paris have been heldin Iran since May 2022 on espionage charges.

Their fate has been unknown since Israel targeted Tehran`s Evin prison in an air strike on Monday, before a US-proposed ceasefire came into force.

Iran`s prison authority transferred inmates out of the prison after it was hit, but it is not clear how many inmates were moved or who they were.

`We don`t know if they are still alive,we don`t know where they are,` Noemie Kohler, Cecile`s daughter by a previous marriage, said at a press conference in Paris.

`We await proof of life immediately, she added.

Anne-Laure Paris, Jacques`s daughter by a previous marriage, said she also had no idea where her father was.

`In view of the gravity of the situation, I am addressing you today, for the first time, because I`m scared for my father`s life,` she said at a press conference.

Chirinne Ardakani, a lawyer of the relatives, said: `Cecile and Jacques, state hostages arbitrarily detained in a cruel and inhuman manner in Iran, are missing. In law, this is a forced disappearance.`-AFP