'French Excalibur' vanishes from rock it had been stuck in the past 1,300 years as police launch investigation

The French 'Excalibur' has vanished from a rock it had been wedged in for the past 1,300 years.

The famed Durandal sword is presumed to have been stolen from the southern village Rocamadour, despite it being wedged and chained to the stone 32ft off the ground. 

It has left the clifftop village bereft at the loss of its prized tourist attraction with the mayor Dominique Lenfant saying locals feel as though they have been stripped of a part of itself. 

Police have launched an investigation but officers have been left baffled as to how the mystical sword was able to be taken due to its lofty and awkward position embedded in the cliff wall next to the sanctuary. 

Mayor Lenfant said the town was devastated, reported The Telegraph. 

'We're going to miss Durandal. It's been part of Rocamadour for centuries, and there's not a guide who doesn't point it out when he visits,' she told La Dépêche, a French newspaper. 

'Rocamadour feels it's been stripped of a part of itself, but even if it's a legend, the destinies of our village and this sword are entwined.' 

According to legend, the sword could not be broken and was able to slice through boulders with one swoop due to it being the sharpest blade in existence. 

A myth says it was first given to Emperor Charlemagne by an angel before it was wielded by his nephew Roland, a legendary knight.

Durandal is mentioned in 11th century poem The Song of Roland. In the epic, it tells of the sword's magical powers and said it contained one tooth of St Peter, the blood of St Basil, and the hair of St Denis.  

Roland is said to have tried to break the sword on a rock before his death at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass to stop it from getting in the hands of the army of Saracens he had valiantly fought.

But he ending up throwing it into a valley where it miraculously flew for miles and ended up getting embedded into the Rocamadour's cliff.