Mysterious syringe attacks scaring young people in France

Victims are young men and women who report symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, loss of balance, muscle pain and sweating after the attacks.

Mysterious attacks with needles at nightclubs, bars and concerts in various cities of France alarmed the authorities and prompted nightclub owners and festival events organizers to increase security at the venues for fear of new attacks.

In France, more than a hundred investigations were opened for “harmful substance administration” in places as diverse as Nantes, Grenoble, Paris, Lyon, Béziers, Rennes and Toulouse. Victims are young men and women who report symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, loss of balance, muscle pain and sweating.

According to the researchers, the hypotheses about the causes of this type of aggression are open. They don’t know if this will be a form of gratuitous violence or some kind of creepy challenge “posted on social media”.

The penalty for administering a harmful substance is three years’ imprisonment, but in the case of intent or aggravating circumstances such as harming the victim’s health, the penalty can be up to ten years.

Biology student Zoë Stoppaglia was at a bar with friends in Grenoble, southeast of France. In an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, she said that she had been drinking alcohol just an hour before she suddenly felt very bad, making it impossible for her to stand due to vision problems and loss of strength in her legs.

Next to her at the bar, a young man had the same symptoms. Suspecting that they were drugged, they went to the hospital. Tests for GHB, known as the “rape drug,” came back negative. The next day, Zoë’s doctor found an injection scar on her body.

The student filed a police report with Le Monde and was returned to the hospital for additional tests, but still no results. “I’m afraid. I still don’t know what they injected me with. Doctors can’t find out,” he said.

Another victim, Élodie, suffered from amnesia for hours after spending the night at a nightclub in La Rochelle, in the southwestern part of the country. The next day, in an interview with Le Parisien, she said she discovered two injection scars and bruises on her arm, which was confirmed by a medical certificate. Other victims also described the needle mark on the skin only the day after the attack.

While dancing with her friends at Le Mans, Marie felt a tingling in her thigh. “The sudden pain paralyzed me and my legs left me. newspaper Parisien. He spent the night in the hospital, where a nurse found a trace of a syringe needle and a rash on his thigh.

HIV risk

If HIV transmission occurs due to needle use in aggression, victims quickly start triple therapy as a preventative measure, but all HIV tests have so far been negative.

There is still no suspicion or confirmation of the substance administered, as the French authorities tested negative. It is also unknown what kind of needle or syringe was used in aggressions, such as an injection used to deliver insulin.

In numerous cases, doctors and nurses found needle marks in the arms, hips, thighs, ankles, shoulders or back of the victims.

“It’s complicated because victims need to react quickly,” Béziers prosecutor Raphaël Balland told Le Monde. “Some substances disappear rapidly from the body. This is the case with GHB, which after a few hours is no longer detectable.”

In Grenoble, the results of toxicological tests have so far not revealed the presence of GHB or GBL, both of which are used by rapists to deliver drugs to their victims. But Grenoble prosecutor Éric Vaillant told Le Parisien that these analyzes were carried out more than 17 hours after the attacks, and “this does not allow us to formally exclude the GHB administration”.

In Nantes, Brittany, prosecutor Renaud Gaudel says there have been 45 such cases at 17 institutions so far. Some results are still awaited, but so far neither GHB nor any other toxic or pharmaceutical product has been detected. “The purpose of these stings remains to be clarified,” Gaudel told TF1.

GHB can be injected quickly, but other substances require a few seconds of injection. However, victims who realized that they had been bitten report that it was done quickly.

A source linked to research at Béziers told Le Monde that it’s likely to be an excess of adrenaline or a substance produced by the human body, such as insulin.

There was no sexual assault and only one case of theft. In Grenoble, a young man filed a complaint alleging that he had been pricked at a nightclub and that his cell phone, credit card, watch and keys had been stolen.

cameras

These attacks worry nightclub owners who have been closed for nearly two years due to the Covid-19 outbreak, receiving financial aid from the state, and festival organizers, who have had to postpone their events.

After operating for just five months in 2021, nightclubs were able to reopen in February this year.

With increasing complaints to police stations about mysterious bites, businesses are reinforcing customers’ control at the entrance with more detailed searches as well as cameras.

The Usine à Gaz nightclub in Béziers has invested €20,000 (about R$100,000) in cameras, radios and first aid kits, as well as strengthened its security team, according to its manager, Benoît Bienvenu. Since then, he says, there have been no new cases of assault using needles.

There have already been cases of mysterious bites at an important festival called Printemps de Bourges. In the summer, from the end of June, large festivals with tens of thousands of participants are held in France, for example, Hellfest, which attracts fans of heavy metal.

“We take this very seriously. We will strengthen the participant review system,” Gérard Pont, organizer of the Francofolies de La Rochelle, to be held in July, told Le Parisien newspaper.

“It is necessary to analyze the situation without creating a general panic,” says Jérôme Tréhorel, director of the Vieilles Charues festival, which attracts 70,000 people a day. “We are working with doctors, authorities and the regional health agency to have as much information as possible and to reassure our people,” he says.

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