Over a dozen women hospitalised after 145 syringe attacks at French music festival

Upwards of a dozen women and underaged girls have been hospitalised after being targeted in a string of syringe attacks at a music festival in France.

The annual Fete De La Musique festival took place across France on Saturday (June 21), with authorities reporting “unprecedented crowds” attending – while concrete numbers aren’t available, it is estimated that over a million people showed up throughout the day.

However, the festival took a turn for the worse when 145 women and teenage girls reported being pricked with syringes – 13 of which took place in Paris alone, per The Guardian.

Metro UK reports that majority of the victims were minors aged between 14 and 20 – 17 of whom were transported to the Mercy Hospital for toxicology testing. Authorities have yet to confirm if the syringe attacks involved the use of date-rape drugs to render victims vulnerable to sexual assault.

The Guardian adds that investigations opened after three people – including a 15-year-old girl – reported being stabbed by needles and feeling unwell afterwards in separate incidents across Paris.

So far, 12 suspects have been been arrested and are under investigation. Among the 12 apprehended suspects are four people, suspected of targeting up to 50 victims each.

Per CNN, Paris Police Chief Laurent Nuñez claimed that influencers like Abrège Soeur had warned her followers ahead of the festival of calls being made on social media to target girls and women to be targeted with syringes.Nuñez condemned the alleged online call as “completely idiotic”, and called them “extremely serious incidents”.

Metz Mayor François Grosdidier on Sunday 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.”

France24 reports that besides the alleged syringe attacks, over 370 other people were detained over the course of the Fete De La Musique festival. 14 attendees were reportedly seriously injured, including a 17-year-old who was found with stab wounds to their lower abdomen. 13 law enforcement agents were allegedly also injured at the festival.

This isn’t the first time women have reported being the targets of syringe attacks across Europe in recent years. In 2022, several reports were launched across France alleging needle stabbings at music festivals and nightclubs. The same claims were made in Nottingham, UK back in 2021, prompting the British Parliament to publish a report in April 2022 about targetted spiking cases.

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