It would be the fashionable aggression in nightclubs, bars, concert halls: savage stings, randomly inflicted on young revelers. Some say they felt like a pinch. Others, nothing at all. But they suddenly find themselves seized with nausea, headaches, dizziness, sometimes going as far as an epileptic fit, or even loss of consciousness. And then, after the discomfort, the discovery of a trace, like a “little mosquito bite”describes the prosecutor of Toulouse, often surrounded by a hematoma.
Several departments are concerned and the phenomenon is spreading from one city to another, generating an immense wave of concern, relayed on social networks and via the Instagram accounts “Balance your bar”, where anonymous people can post their testimonies.
The problem is taken very seriously, as the testimonies are numerous: in total, no less than 130 investigations have been opened by the police, for facts scattered throughout the territory, mainly concerning young women (who represent 80% of the victims ), specifies the national police to franceinfo. The very first reports were recorded from the summer of 2021. “But the phenomenon clearly gained momentum in March and especially April 2022”, according to police data.
Nantes is the most affected city, with around fifty reports accumulated since mid-February, to such an extent that a specific blood sampling procedure had to be put in place, in collaboration with the departmental directorate of public security of Loire- Atlantic and the CHU. “If a patient shows signs of chemical submission, all doctors are asked to apply the same protocol to the emergency room, in particular by examining whether there is a lesion”, explains François Raffi, head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at the Nantes University Hospital. By “lesion”, the infectiologist hears: trace of a possible bite.
In Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), sixteen procedures have been recorded by the prosecution since December 10. The prosecutor of Grenoble (Isère), Eric Vaillant, counts eighteen complaints and relates symptoms “always more or less similar”like the “malaise, fainting, vomiting”he explains to franceinfo. “What surprised me is that it is always a question of fairly short discomfort: less than half an hour each time.”
Since the beginning of April, dozens of young people have said they have been bitten in nightclubs or at festivals in France.
Testimony of a young woman in Rennes
By @HospitalMarie #AFP pic.twitter.com/b3DH2dsYzu
– Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) April 29, 2022
In Béziers (Hérault), his colleague Raphaël Balland talks about “a whole bunch of symptoms”not always identical. “Some victims describe fatigue, weakness, others speak of real discomfort”, describes the prosecutor. In his city, the overwhelming majority of the victims identified say they were attacked on the night of April 17 to 18, after which fourteen complaints were filed by seven girls and seven boys.
Dozens of cases have also been observed in Paris, Toulouse, Montélimar, Valence, Tours… “The presence of traces of one or more stings was attested on almost all the victims identified”, certifies the direction of the national police to franceinfo. This little red dot is sometimes surrounded by a hematoma, “as if there had been a little knock”, describes François Raffi. These marks, the images of which were widely shared on Instagram and TikTok, were found on the arms, legs, back, neck, buttocks and thighs of the young victims, sometimes under their clothes.
At the moment, cases are not centralized at the national level. Each parquet floor was therefore entered locally. Police and gendarmes try to “Find elements on video surveillance, collect testimonies… They seek to understand who we could be dealing with”details a police source. “We are hyper vigilant but expectant”she breathes.
Because the tracks are still very thin, even almost non-existent. Part of the toxicological analyzes carried out on victims are still “awaiting results”, underlines the national police. But most of the prosecutors interviewed have already received part of the conclusions. And sometimes all of it, like in Grenoble, where nothing abnormal was detected. Of the 18 complaints received, ten expert opinions were carried out “on the people who presented themselves in due time to the hospital”explains the prosecutor.
GHB, suspected from the outset, has been ruled out for the time being. This molecule, nicknamed “the rape drug” because of its drowsiness effects, was not found in any sample. But GHB is very volatile, and localizable only during “four to six o’clock” in the blood and urine, underlines Nicolas Franchitto, addictologist at CHU Purpan, in Toulouse. He regrets the shortcomings of the screening kits – which he calls “unscrambling kits” – used in the emergency room. “They detect the main substances, such as cocaine, cannabis, alcohol, opiates…” he details. But others can get through. Specialized laboratories, approved by the courts, carry out more in-depth analyses, but they are only accessible after filing a complaint, which further delays the samples and the chances of finding certain substances.
Among the other products that could be inoculated, the addictologist cites the whole family “benzodiazepines”or “sedatives and anxiolytics” such as Valium or Lexomil, “amnestic and sedative drugs that exist in liquid, colorless and painless form”. Investigators also suspect injections by adrenaline pens, used to relieve insect sting allergies. But this substance being naturally secreted by the human body, it is undetectable in the analyses.
The authorities therefore invite us to remain very cautious in the event of negative returns from the samples. “The absence of traces detected cannot be interpreted as an absence of injection, it may be due to sampling too late”insists the police to franceinfo.
The detection of toxins, however, would have been a great help in advancing investigations and clarifying the motivations of possible perpetrators. So far, no suspects have been apprehended.
No attempted sexual assault or rape was thus reported in the complaints. The Béziers prosecutor, Raphaël Balland, does not really believe in this motive. “We had an isolated complaint from a young girl so in her case, it would hold. But for the fourteen victims targeted the same night, I do not see the strategy of a sex offender, especially since these bites have been identified in a fairly short period of time”he analyzes.
Moreover, only “some victims mentioned the disappearance or theft of personal effects”, according to the police. Only certainty for the prosecutors questioned: there can only be one author, the facts being too close in time. Stinging attacks were, for example, reported the same night, in Grenoble and Béziers. “It is possible that attackers copy each other”, believes Raphaël Balland. Unless it is “Someone who wants to observe the effects to analyze them? See the consequences of his gesture?” still advances the prosecutor of Béziers, obviously perplexed.
“Is it to create psychosis, to hurt, to annoy others?”
Eric Vaillant, prosecutor of Grenobleat franceinfo
“We don’t even know what the person is biting with!” points out the Nantes University Hospital infectious disease specialist, François Raffi. He considers in any case that it is a small object in view of the bites “very minimal”. “It can be a needle, a syringe, a syringe without a needle”lists the doctor, assuring that it may contain “flour, water… Or nothing at all.”
An injection with an empty syringe? The hypothesis is not excluded by the investigators, assures Eric Vaillant, the prosecutor of Grenoble, specifying however that it is not a question of their priority work track. “Victims could develop discomfort from anxiety”, deciphers the magistrate. The possibility is also being studied by his colleague from Toulouse.
“It may be an empty needle, but the stress of the prick in this context can cause one to feel nervous discomfort, accentuated by ambient stress, which would create an emotional shock.”
Samuel Vuelta-Simon, public prosecutor in Toulouseat franceinfo
Moreover, the bites were not systematically noted on each of the victims and “there is no expertise on the sting itself”, he acknowledges. The gray areas are numerous and the investigators could find it difficult to move towards tangible answers, like their colleagues across the Channel.
Because the same phenomenon occurred in the United Kingdom, last fall. In several cities, women claimed to have been drugged without their knowledge by needle pricks. Several of them said they had fainted, before discovering the next day a small wound on an area of their body, relates The Independent (article in English). But of the 274 reported cases, no attempt to inject drugs has been proven, reports Vice (article in English). In several British regions, the police even indicated that some complainants had in fact not been the victims of any attack. No theft or sexual assault was reported.
Could the victims have misinterpreted the attacks they believe to have been the targets? This is one of the theses put forward by the Rennes prosecutor in a recent interview with France Bleu. He notes that out of the fifteen testimonies of people claiming to have been stung, there were “feelings of unease” but their condition “has not been significantly changed”. “Is it someone who is unwell for another cause, such as consumption of alcohol or illicit products?” asks Philippe Astruc.
There remains the hypothesis of a crowd phenomenon in the face of the intense media coverage of the testimonies. The general excitement is reminiscent of the cases of mutilated horses, which had sown dread in the summer of 2020. A range of leads had been studied by the authorities, up to the highest level of the State. The conclusions of the investigation had revealed, to the surprise of the breeders, that a minority of the facts reported were the result of human action, i.e. “only” 84 cases out of more than 500 reports recorded in 2020.
Could we arrive at the same conclusions concerning bites in night establishments? Is the phenomenon ultimately just a vast psychosis, fueled and amplified by its strong media coverage? The authorities and medical experts – generally skeptical – are very cautious.
“Health is an extremely sensitive subject. Rumors that are related to it are more easily conveyed and taken very seriously”, explains to franceinfo Mélusine Boon-Falleur, doctoral student in cognitive sciences at the ENS. On these subjects, humans may tend “to overactivate his vigilance system”, continues the researcher, taking the metaphor of the fire alarm, “very effective” but who “also rings for a piece of charred bread”. It is possible that this hypervigilance creates a certain over-interpretation in a context where “it’s easier to think there’s a problem where there isn’t, rather than the other way around”.