CNN
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It was about 1:30am after the crowd faded from the streets of Bordeaux.
“Someone smacked my left forearm. I began to feel paralysis in my muscles, like when I got the vaccine. About 30 minutes later, the injection mark appeared,” she recalled to CNN.
She said, “I don’t want to panic,” despite not knowing what she had been injected with or what she did.
Manon, 22, was one of almost 150 people in France who reported being stabbed with a syringe at a national street music festival over the weekend. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, it remains unclear whether date rape drugs such as Rohypnol and GHB have been used in “needle spikes” attacks that appear to involve multiple perpetrators.
Feminist influencers had warned that women were called on social media to target syringes ahead of the festival, which attracted millions of people on the streets.
After spending 7.am from 4am in the emergency room on Sunday, Manon shared a video of his experience at Tiktok.
“I had never seen testimony from people who were injected, so it was important to raise awareness,” said Manon, who refused to give her last name for safety reasons.
“We were told to be careful on social media, but people want to know more. How it happens, the symptoms, how does it unfold, it made me feel more at ease to talk about it.
After she returned home from the hospital, Manon filed a police report. “Because if we’re too loose, if we say, ‘Oh, others will file a complaint,’ nothing will change.
Since Saturday, French police have detained 14 men between the ages of 19 and 44, including both French citizens and foreigners, police spokeswoman Agate Foucault told Radio France on Tuesday, but have not arrested them in connection with needle spikes.
“The police have not identified the perpetrator behind the injection, but the incident has been confirmed,” Justice Minister Gerald Derman told CNN’s affiliate BFMTV on Tuesday.
The minister said the authorities would also pursue those who called for the attack online.
“We are implementing a criminal policy to prosecute the responsible person on social media for these very unhealthy injection games targeting women,” Dharmanin said.
Abreth Soul, a feminist influencer who had warned on social media that men had planned such an attack before the festival, told CNN that the perpetrator “is not just drug women.”
“When people start saying there’s a needle attack, it spreads in the form of rumors. Some mention it in group chats, they just pick it up and it’s amplified,” she said.
Faced with three weeks waiting for her toxicology outcome, Manon says she “slept barely in the last few days”, but she refuses to be caught up in her experience.
“Fete de la Musik is meant to be a time of good atmosphere, music, dancing and having fun. Someone wanted to ruin the moment and kill that spirit.
