At the four corners of France, the same story, the same concern. On Saturday, when the music festival was in full swing, 145 people said they were victims of wild bites, injections administered without their knowledge, while they were celebrating. In Montpellier, a young woman appeared to the CRS after being stung in the street. The suspect, filmed by a witness, was arrested soon after. In Toulouse, it was a teenager who was taken care of by the firefighters after having felt strong scapula pain. In Metz, sixteen young girls from 14 to 20 years old, several of whom have made discomfort, would have been victims. In Paris, thirteen cases of this type were reported. A 15 -year -old teenager was unwell after being stung in the arm in the Bastille district. In the 16th arrondissement, it was an Iraqi teenager who was taken with violent headache just after feeling a bite.
If the inventory is worrying – notably in terms of the season of festivals and major summer gatherings -, the phenomenon remains difficult to quantify. “In some cases, the bite is quite easily materialized, especially when the victims are taken care of immediately. But the echo around these wild bites can create a form of concern that will push people to manifest themselves because they have made a discomfort or noted a suspicious trace, “analyzes Commissioner Agathe Foucault, spokesperson for the national police. Thus in Bethune, where a young woman thought he was the victim of this phenomenon, the first elements of the investigation let us actually think that it was … a toothpick.
Calls on social networks
Even before the music festival, calls to “bite” had spread on social networks, creating anxiety among the population. If the initial messages are difficult to identify, those inviting women to the greatest caution have been shared thousands of times, pushing the participants to be on the lookout. These calls to sting are all the more incomprehensible since their objective is vague. What is the mobile of these bites? Sexual violence? Generate fear? A (very) bad joke? “We must be careful not to fall into psychosis, insists a source within the Ministry of the Interior. This remains an extremely limited phenomenon even if it should obviously not take it lightly. And to recall that 145 people show up on millions to party.
How many cases have been identified in recent years? Impossible to say. The Ministry of Justice states that it does not have figures because wild bites are classified in a broader category: administration of harmful substance, even voluntary violence with weapons. The Ministry of the Interior also indicates that he did not make any specific count since 2022. That year, some 2,077 complaints had been recorded, many of which ended with a classification without follow-up, in particular because no trace of chemicals has been detected.
If the investigations are just beginning for this 2025 music festival, an observation is essential: the gap between reports and complaints. In Rouen, for example, 19 people have stood out on the evening of the music festival but “only three people filed a complaint”, according to the public prosecutor of Paris. If the judicial process can be afraid, the magistrate specifies that part of the withdrawals are explained by the fact that the victims realized that they had in reality been stung by insects. Likewise in Paris, thirteen reports were collected but only four surveys are underway, specifies the prosecution.
The difficulty of materializing the facts
What about the 14 men, aged 19 to 44, arrested all over France on the evening of the Music Festival? The majority of police custody were lifted over the weekend without there is – for the time being – prosecution. If surveys continue, these investigations are often complicated. “All the difficulty for us will be to materialize the facts: we must collect convincing elements so that there may be a trial, not only the designation of a suspect,” continues Agathe Foucault. And the commissioner to insist: “the faster we intervene and the more likely we are to achieve it”.
From now on, a protocol has been set up to take charge of the victims: they are immediately conducted in the emergency room. In addition to medical management, the objective is to make a sample as quickly as possible to find the substance with which the person was pricked. “You have to do this as quickly as possible because certain substances remain very shortly in the blood,” continues the spokesperson. The GHB, for example, is no longer detectable six hours after administration. The continuation happens as a classic survey, especially using video protection and testimonies. “In general, during events of this type, it is always good to have covering clothes and to be attentive. In doubt, do not hesitate to come forward, ”insists the police commissioner.
