Gun in Pippa's photo 'just a toy'

Paris - Pippa Middleton went to Paris for a friend's birthday party and the British media are agog over an alleged gun flashed at paparazzi by one of her companions.

But a spokesperson for a French fashion designer photographed in a car with Middleton, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, and a pistol-brandishing driver says it was a toy gun, and just "a game" with paparazzi.

Aymeric de Drouas, spokesperson for a French clothing company owned by Arthur de Soultrait, told The Associated Press the gun in a photo published by The Sun newspaper was a toy and the photographers knew it.

Drouas says Middleton and Soultrait told him they were joking with photographers who'd been trailing them throughout Middleton's visit for Soultrait's birthday party.

Paris police say they've received no complaint and are not investigating.