Protesters demonstrate against the death of George Floyd outside the 3rd Precinct Police Precinct on May 26, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the US. Photo: AFP

An investigation into the death of a young black man in French police custody found that the tactics used to overpower him played a role in his death from heatstroke, according to a report seen by AFP on Monday.

The report from four Belgian doctors commissioned by investigating magistrates said the way officers pinned Adama Traore to the floor had likely contributed to his death during a heatwave.

The family's lawyer Yassine Bouzrou said the report marked a "turning point" in the affair and justified charges against the three police officers involved.

Lawyers for the police said they had acted according to regulations in response to Traore's resistance, and were "completely unaware" of Traore's medical history, including a heart condition.

Traore, dubbed the "French George Floyd" after the black American killed by US police in 2020, has become one of the faces of a growing campaign to end police brutality in France.

He died on July 19, 2016, at the age of 24 after fleeing officers who wanted to check his ID in Beaumont-sur-Oise north of Paris. After a chase he was traced to an apartment where three officers jumped on him to handcuff him.

One of the officers later said he had complained that he could not breathe - an admission that later drew comparisons with Floyd's May 2020 death in a chokehold in the US city of Minneapolis.

Traore was taken unconscious to a police station and left handcuffed on the floor in the recovery position, where the emergency services later pronounced him dead two hours after his arrest.

Although an initial autopsy found he died from asphyxiation, experts overruled that finding in May 2020, saying an underlying heart condition and genetic illness caused his death.

AFP