A painting that may be by the Italian master Caravaggio and worth £94m has been found in the loft of a house in southern France.

It was found in Toulouse two years ago and passed to art expert Eric Turquin, who says it is a version of the 1599 work, Judith Beheading Holofernes.

He said it was discovered by the owners when they investigated a roof leak.

The French government has placed a bar on the work leaving the country for 30 months while tests are carried out.

The work, which depicts the Biblical heroine Judith beheading an Assyrian general, is thought to have gone missing about 100 years after it was painted.

Another version of it, which was also thought to be lost before its rediscovery in 1950, hangs in Rome's National Gallery of Ancient Art.

Experts at Paris' Louvre Museum are examining the work to try to establish its creator, though Turquin said there would "never be a consensus" on who painted it.

If it proves to be genuine, the French Government will be given the first chance to purchase the work.