A young party activist for France's far-right Front National (FN) has gone on trial accused of setting fire to cars in secret late-night arson attacks in order to complain about rising crime and insecurity.

Adrien Desport, 25, who stood for the FN in local elections in 2011 and once headed communications at a local party branch in Seine-et-Marne outside Paris, appeared in court in Meaux with five others on charges of arson and vandalism, conspiring to commit crime, drug charges and faking an attack on himself.