The mother-in-law of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has been kidnapped in Brazil with criminals demanding a ransom of $36.5m (£28m), reports say.

Aparecida Schunck, the 67-year-old mother of Ecclestone's wife Fabiana Flosi, was seized in Sao Paulo on Friday night, Veja and Globo reported.

Police in the city have not yet commented.

Ecclestone, 85, is one of the most powerful men in sport and is worth an estimated $3.1bn (£2.4bn).

He married Flosi in 2012, three years after meeting the now 38-year-old at the Brazilian Grand Prix. He divorced his former wife of 25 years, Croatian model Slavica Radic, to be with her and they live in the UK.

The kidnappers have demanded the ransom, a record amount for an abduction in Brazil, be paid in pounds sterling and divided into four bags of cash, Veja reported.

Kidnapping was common in Brazil a decade ago, with Sao Paulo seeing an abduction every 27 hours in 2002, but declined after police formed a special anti-kidnap division and cracked down.

The country, due to host the Olympic Games in less than two weeks, is experiencing its worst economic crisis for decades.

Ecclestone has not commented on the reports.

(BBC)