PARIS, May 4 (Reuters) - French prosecutors opened an

preliminary investigation against TotalEnergies after

victims of a jihadist attack in Mozambique in 2021 accused the

energy firm of negligence and indirect manslaughter, a lawyer

for the plaintiffs said.

Islamist insurgents attacked the port city of Palma in March

2021, killing many civilians in areas close to Mozambican LNG

infrastructure projects, owned in part by TotalEnergies.

Survivors and relatives filed a complaint in October last

year, saying the company had failed to ensure the safety of

subcontractors. TotalEnergies rejected the allegations at the

time, saying they were "inaccurate."

The plaintiffs' lawyer Henri Thulliez was confirming

information initially reported on Saturday by Agence

France-Presse. The prosecutor's office was not immediately

available to comment.

A source close to the matter told Reuters that a preliminary

investigation was opened late last year. At the end of it,

prosecutors can decide to dismiss the case, send the company to

trial or order further investigations.

The plaintiffs - including three survivors and four

relatives of victims who died in an ambush - alleged that

TotalEnergies failed to inform subcontractors of the risks of

possible attacks or of the progress of such attacks, and did not

have proper safety or evacuation plans in place.

TotalEnergies was not immediately available to comment. In

October it responded to the complaint by saying it did have a

security plan and had carried it out.

Work on TotalEnergies' LNG project in Mozambique has been

halted since 2021. Sources said in December that TotalEnergies

planned to restart the project in the first quarter of this year

but the region has seen a resurgence in deadly insurgent attacks

since January.

(Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide

Editing by Ros Russell)