At an annual statewide music event on Saturday, 145 people nationwide, including 13 in Paris, reported being stabbed with needles, according to French officials on Sunday. In relation to the stabbings, twelve persons were taken into custody.
According to the government, some sufferers were sent to the hospital for toxicological testing. No information was released by French authorities regarding the individuals detained or the potential contents of the syringes.
The reports were part of a number of concerning incidents in recent years where people have reported being injected without their knowledge or consent in crowded places like clubs or bars, even though the number of victims was small in comparison to the millions of people who attended Fête de la Musique events throughout France.
Following a sharp rise in spiking occurrences, the British Parliament released a report in 2022 stating that over 1,000 cases of needle attacks had occurred nationwide between September 2021 and the end of December 2022. According to police data, almost 90% of needle-spiking occurrences took place in the evening at establishments like pubs and nightclubs, while some also happened at festivals and house parties, according to the report, which polled over 3,000 victims and witnesses.
According to the analysis, there may be many more attacks that go unreported, and there was insufficient data to assess the total prevalence of needle spiking.
For over 40 years, France has held the Fête de la Musique every year. On June 21, the summer solstice, free concerts are held around the nation and in France’s overseas territories, and musicians of all skill levels are invited to perform on sidewalks, in parks, and in other public areas.
According to Le Monde and other French news sites, social media messages advocating for similar attacks on women went viral before to the festival.
In an interview with the French television network CNews, Paris police prefect Laurent Nunez stated that while authorities were taking reports seriously, they were doing so cautiously. According to him, this phenomena is not new.One girl who claimed to have been stabbed with a needle turned out to have been scratched upon closer inspection, according to a report published Monday by the northern French regional newspaper La Voix du Nord.
According to Dr. Adam R. Winstock, a professor at University College London and the inventor of the Global Drug Survey, which tracks drug trends, needle spiking is an extremely uncommon occurrence.
Only a very small fraction of drinks that individuals believe to be spiked are truly spiked, according to toxicological study, even when it comes to drink spiking, a more prevalent method of drugging people, he added. According to him, the police have also hardly ever been notified that a narcotic was administered by needle spiking.
Winstock warned that as news of the stabbings spread, panic may have caused some of the reports in France. “The story may be that a group of people discover something they heard had happened to someone else until there is toxicological evidence,” he said. A sharp prick does not necessarily indicate that you have received a drug injection.
“Needle spiking is not the biggest threat out there,” he added, adding that people being taken advantage of when intoxicated or under the influence of narcotics posed a much greater risk on evenings out.
The New York Times was the first publication of this article.
Sign up for the Today newsletter
Receive all the information you require to begin your day, given directly to your inbox each morning.
