ZURICH - Swiss police detained Oscar winning film director Roman Polanski on a US warrant over three-decade-old charges of unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, a film festival's organisers said Sunday.

Polanski, 76, was arrested on Saturday after he arrived to receive a prize at the Zurich film festival, organisers said in a statement.

A Los Angeles judge refused in May the fugitive director's bid to dismiss the case after Polanski, who lives in France, failed to appear in court.

Polanski, famed for films such as "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown," fled the United States in 1978 before being sentenced for his guilty plea to a charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.