The Beth Yossef school in Bussieres, around 60 kilometres (35 miles) east of the capital Paris, had been hosting around 60 children aged 13-18 including  “many underage American and Israeli children who do not speak French in abusive conditions”, prosecutor Laureline Peyrefitte said earlier this week.

The children allegedly suffered “being locked up, confiscation of their identity documents, poor conditions, acts of abuse, lack of access to education and healthcare, and no possibility of returning to their families”.

Police said they had taken 17 members in staff in for questioning.

The seven were charged on Friday with various offences relating to the mistreatment of pupils and placed under judicial supervision, Peyrefitte added on Saturday.

Site managers, teaching staff, supervisors had “generally denied the facts even if some were able to describe acts like slaps and blows”, she said.

An American boy escaped from the school in July and sought shelter at the US embassy in Paris.

Others followed, and Israeli public television has been investigating the school for months.

Some of the children have already been returned to their parents.