Latvian central bank governor Ilmars Rimsevics has been detained by the country's anti-corruption agency, the prime minister's office said in a statement on Sunday.

"The Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB) has applied the status of being detained to the Governor of Bank of Latvia [Ilmars Rimsevics]," Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The home and office of the central bank's governor was searched on Friday, the state broadcaster said on Saturday.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.