France has blamed Iran for a wave of cyber-attacks on refrigerators at hundreds of supermarkets in October that led to the destruction of millions of euros’ worth of food.

“This was an attack of unprecedented scale and unprecedented aggressiveness,” foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot told journalists on Monday.

Barrot described the incident as the first large-scale cyber-attack carried out for sabotage purposes on French territory, and said retaliatory sanctions would be imposed “at a European level”.

The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation on Monday, accusing Iran and citing “the use of Farsi and IP addresses pointing to devices located in Iran”.

The prosecutor’s office said it is investigating the involvement of the head of Shahid Kaveh, a cyber-offensive unit attached to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as his two deputies and any other responsible individuals.

Incidents across Europe

Similar attacks took place affecting retail outlets in European countries including Belgium, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.

Incidents earlier this year that affected freezers on US military bases are also being investigated as cyber-attacks.