A French official sparked a major row on Tuesday by suggesting gay people came lower in the pecking order than heterosexual couples when applying to adopt children.

Pascale Lemare, head of the adoption service in the Seine-Maritime region of Normandy, northern France, said same-sex couples were likely to be left with adoptive children who were ill or otherwise "atypical", prompting outrage from gay rights groups.

"Children that no one wants – there are people who don't want to adopt children who are too damaged, too psychologically damaged, too big, or handicapped," Lemare said.

She had been asked in an interview with France Bleu local radio if it was more "complicated" for a gay couple to adopt a healthy baby. "There are parents who correspond better to the required criteria," she replied.

"Not a gay couple, then?" asked the interviewer.

"Well, no", Lemare said, adding that same-sex couples were "a little atypical, you might say, with regard to social norms and biological norms". She went on: "If their plan includes children with atypical profiles... if homosexual couples have open expectations, they can indeed adopt a child."

France legalised gay marriage and same-sex adoption in 2013 after large demonstrations against the changes by Catholic and conservative groups.