Complaints for injections in nightclubs, bars and festivals are piling up across the whole of France, but the evidence is still lacking to determine the reality of these malicious acts.
As of June 16, 800 complaints had been filed for injections, from Lille to Béziers (Hérault) and from Lorient (Morbihan) to Strasbourg, via Grenoble, Nancy, Lyon, Besançon, Bastia or Valence.
Some 1,098 victims were identified, but no analysis revealed the presence of GHB, nicknamed "the rape drug", according to the National Police Directorate (DGPN).
A young man is indicted in Toulon, several police custody took place including four in Béziers, where the prosecutor Raphaël Balland explains "to take these complaints very seriously" and to continue the investigation.
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In a summary note from the DGPN dated June 7, the editors note “immediate effects” but also “delayed effects” of the bites with sometimes “marks of bruises”.
The symptoms are varied and range from "headaches" to "hot flashes" to "dizziness" or even "loss of consciousness".
In Montpellier, the prosecutor Fabrice Belargent does not “keep accounts” of the number of cases which “evolves every week”.
"So far, we have not identified any substance," he says.
The only case of detection of a potential injected substance took place in Châlons-en-Champagne where "an examination came back with a trace of common medicine, light anxiolytic type, not consumed by the victim" according to the prosecution.
While an investigation for "false denunciation" was opened in Orléans after the complaint of a young 19-year-old woman, some professionals are worried about the risk of excitement, no associated consideration, theft or violence, having been identified.
“True psychosis among young women”
“There is a real psychosis, especially among young women, and during parties or events bringing together a lot of people like the Nîmes feria.
I know women who did not want to go out during the weekend because of these bites, "explained to AFP Dr Mounir Benslima, head of the forensic medicine unit of the University Hospital Center (CHU) of the city, where 47 cases were recorded by the Red Cross during the six days of festivities in early June.
“But that doesn't mean that 47 people were stung on purpose, even by fools playing scary.
It's just people who believe they have been bitten and who may have been scratched or who have been taken unwell without there being a link with bites, ”explains Dr. Benslima.
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In the case of people suspecting a syringe attack, the Dijon University Hospital advises “above all not to urinate before treatment” and to “join an emergency service as quickly as possible”.
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“Anti-bite” descent into a nightclub in Roanne
The Toulon public prosecutor's office and the Nancy CHRU have implemented sampling protocols in recent weeks for people who have been drugged without their knowledge.
Similar events were denounced last fall in the United Kingdom with a wave of testimonies from students drugged without their knowledge by injections in nightclubs.
