French investigators have issued a European arrest warrant for a doctor believed to have gone on the run following his trial for allegedly mutilating 96 patients in his unlicensed plastic surgery clinic.

Michel Maure, 59, who claimed be one of the world's top cosmetic surgeons, is reported to have fled from the Spanish coast on an 18-metre yacht.

Investigators say that his partner, their two young children and Mr Maure's 14-year-old daughter from an earlier relationship are also missing.

Friends and family have had no news of them for several weeks, according to La Provence, the regional daily.

The newspaper said that they had disappeared in a BMW after a violent dispute between the couple.

The arrest warrant was issued last Friday after Mr Maure failed to respect the bail conditions fixed at the end f his two-week trial in Marseilles, southern France, in June, according to a French legal source. He had been ordered to stay in the region while judges considered their verdict, which is due next month.

Prosecutors called for a four year prison sentence for the medic, who is charged with involuntary wounding, aggravated fraud and making misleading claims about himself on an Internet site, magicclinic.com.

An anaesthetist by training, Mr Maure inflicted physical and psychological suffering on his victims in botched operations involving breast implants, liposuction, facelifts and nose remodelling, the court heard.

Catherine, a patient who saw Mr Maure for a breast implant, said: "The operaton was a total failure. Not only was it painful, he sowed me up raw and I saw bits of flesh on the table which were meant to correspond to my left breast. Doctors I've seen since then have told me the damage was so important it could not be repaired."

Before being struck off the medical register last year, he boasted that he was "one of the great aesthetic surgeons of the world", the trial was told. He said that he had carried out 15,000 operations.

MaÎtre Dominique Ramirez, Mr Maure's lawyer, said: "I have had him on the phone from time to time but it's true that I've had no news for several weeks. He was fed up with being taken to task in the street. He wanted to get away from it all."

The case has particularly morbid resonance for French ears because Docteur Maure is pronounced like Docteur mort, which means Doctor death.

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