Police search SocGen trader's flat: witness

NEUILLY, France (Reuters) - Police searched the flat of Jerome Kerviel, the Societe Generale trader accused of causing 4.9 billion euros ($7.18 billion) of losses by fraud at the bank, a Reuters witness said on Friday.

Four plainclothes police officers were seen entering and leaving the third-floor apartment, in the exclusive Paris suburb of Neuilly as they went in to search the premises.

They each left carrying a large square briefcase. They identified themselves as police but did not say from which police department. They declined further comment on the situation.

Kerviel has not been seen in public since the bank revealed the scandal on Thursday but a photograph has been splashed across newspapers and television screens.

The mystery over his whereabouts has sparked a massive media hunt with journalists out in force in Neuilly, his hometown of Pont-l'Abbe in Brittany and near his workplace in the financial area of La Defense.

(Reporting by Brian Rohan, Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)