In France, attacks using syringes or needles are becoming more common at music events and festivals. Such attacks are now also happening in Germany.
Two men have been arrested in France after repeated needle attacks. In Toulon, southern France, a 20-year-old suspect is said to have pricked visitors with a needle or syringe at a concert on the beach. In Vic-Fezensac, in the south-west, a man is accused of a similar attack on festival-goers. Such attacks have been carried out again and again in France since the beginning of the year.
One of the alleged attacks occurred on Friday evening while a concert was being televised on Toulon beach. As the investigators announced on Monday, around 20 visitors reported injuries that were probably caused by needles or syringes.
Two women identified a suspected perpetrator, and he was arrested on Sunday. A woman was hospitalized. The police also had to intervene after the attacks caused panic among visitors. According to investigators in Toulon, the arrested person is charged with serious and intentional weapon violence.
Also over the weekend, several 17- to 18-year-olds reported suspected needle or syringe attacks at a festival in Belfort in eastern France. A man has been arrested in Vic-Fezensac, south-west France, after seven people reported similar stab wounds after a festival, according to prosecutors.
Since the beginning of the year, a total of more than a hundred cases of young people who were allegedly injured with needles or syringes in clubs or at festivals have been reported from different regions of France.
Victims report experiencing sudden nausea, dizziness and a sharp pain during or after going to a club. They later discovered a red dot on her skin with a ring-shaped bruise around it, which appeared to be a puncture mark.
Authorities are advising victims of the attacks to have a blood test done. Some of those affected were prescribed preventive treatments against HIV and hepatitis. So far, however, no cases of poisoning or drug administration have been identified after the attacks.
The incidents spoil the celebration mood in France. The “sick and perverse” needle attacks caused “hysteria” among young people, said Thierry Fontaine of the hospitality association UMIH. After the Corona crisis, this means new revenue shortfalls for France’s nightclubs.
Reports have also piled up in Berlin that clubbers have been unintentionally drugged with syringes. After the singer Alison Lewis reported about “Needle Spiking” in the Berghain club, there is said to have been another case. Both victims complained of a sudden feeling of numbness.
The Clubcommission Berlin announced on Instagram that they take the reports very seriously and are in contact with experts and organizations. “Instead of explaining to potential victims how to protect themselves from spiking, we must do everything we can to prevent these acts and exclude perpetrators from our locations,” it continues.
(This article was first published on Monday 06 June 2022.)
