Syringe attacks during France's music street festival leave 145 jabbed and several hospitalised
The outdoor festival took place all over France last Saturday, with authorities reporting "unprecedented crowds" in Paris.
The Interior Ministry said that 145 people nationwide had reported being stabbed with needles, with Paris police reporting 13 cases in the capital. Upwards of a dozen women and underaged girls have been hospitalised.
'The ministry is taking this very seriously,' a spokeswoman from the Interior Ministry stated. "Some victims were taken to hospital for toxicological tests and the investigation is ongoing," the ministry added.
Officials have yet to say if these were cases of needle spiking with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB, but the drugs rendered victims confused and vulnerable to sexual assault.
Ahead of the festival, influencers like Abrège Soeur warned that calls had been made on social media for women to be targeted with syringes.
Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez todl French broadcaster CNews: 'These are extremely serious incidents,' calling the online calls to inject women 'completely idiotic.'
Two men were also arrested in the centre of the north-eastern city of Metz on suspicion of syringe attacks.
The mayor of Metz, François Grosdidier, took to social media to address the situation: 'On social networks, a call for syringe assaults has been launched during the Music Festivals in major cities. It happened in two other cities in Moselle and all over France… 17 young girls (ages 14-20) were victimized in #Metz.'
Grosdidier continued: 'A description of a syringe attacker was shared with the Urban Supervision Center (CSU) to help locate him on video footage, as well as with the municipal and national police. Municipal police officers identified him on Rue Serpenoise, arrested him, and handed him over to the National Police and judicial authorities. I hope the investigation – especially examining his mobile phone – will help identify other attackers.'
Police said more than 370 people were detained nationwide during the festival on various charges. A reported fourteen participants in the festivities were seriously injured, including a 17-year-old who was hospitalised after being found sitting on the street with stab wounds to the lower abdomen.
Thirteen members of law enforcement were also injured.
This isn't the first time that syringe attacks targeting women have taken place.
Similar cases took place in France in June 2022. Several suspects around France were detained for allegedly pricking people with a needle in nightclubs or at concerts.
At the time, the French Ministry of the Interior confirmed to Euronews that 80 per cent of the targets were young women. French police tallied over 400 reports at the time, saying that the motive of the jabs was unclear.
In Spain, the number of women reporting being jabbed with medical needles while at nightclubs or parties rose to 60 in 2022, according to the country's interior minister.
There were similar incidents in the UK in 2021, prompting the British Parliament to publish a report in April 2022 about spiking cases.
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