France's disturbing syringe incident: Teen girls among 145 attacked. Were those laced with date-rape drugs?

Police in France have detained as many as 12 suspects after 145 people, including teen girls, were pricked with syringes during the country’s annual street music festival this weekend. Local and national law enforcement officials are investigating the disturbing incident in which suspects wielding syringes with unknown contents jabbed 145 victims at the popular Fêtes de la Musique, or World Music Day, prompting several to be hospitalized.

Millions of people took to the streets across France on Saturday evening for the Fete de la Musique, with authorities reporting "unprecedented crowds" in Paris. However, officials are yet to say if these were cases were so-called needle spiking with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB, used by attackers to render victims confused or inconscious and vulnerable to sexual assault.

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145 stabbed with syringes across France

The attack reportedly happened at 9:15 pm on the Rue du Palais in Metz in northeastern France, according to Mayor François Grosdidie. Authorities received a report of a suspect involved in one of the attacks and used security footage to track him down, Grosdidie said.

“The municipal police identified him on Rue Serpenoise, arrested him, and made him available to the National Police and the Justice Department,” he added. “I hope that the investigation, particularly through the examination of his cellphone, will lead to the identification of other attackers.”

"Some victims were taken to hospital for toxicological tests," the interior ministry said. Authorities in Paris have launched investigations after three individuals—including a 15-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man—reported being stabbed in separate incidents across the city, prosecutors said. Each of the victims reported feeling unwell following the attacks.

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Across France, there were millions of people who took to the streets Saturday evening for the festival, according to La Monde. None of them were deterred by posts on Snapchat and other social media sites warning of the bizarre syringe attack.

In addition to the identified suspects, over 370 individuals were taken into custody during the festival for various offenses, with nearly 90 arrests occurring in Paris alone. Fourteen festivalgoers sustained serious injuries. Among them was a 17-year-old who was hospitalized after being discovered on the street with stab wounds to the lower abdomen.

Thirteen law enforcement officers were also injured. Despite these incidents, Paris police chief Laurent Nunez stated that “no major incident has been reported.”

(With AFP inputs)