French police arrested 12 suspects after 145 people reported being pricked with syringes during the country's annual street music festival. Millions of people took to the streets across France on the evening of 21 Jun for the Fete de la Musique, with the authorities reporting "unprecedented crowds" in Paris. Before the event, social media posts had called for women to be targeted during the festivities. 145 victims across the country had reported being stabbed with needles, 13 in Paris. Some victims felt unwell after the stabbings. Officials did not say if these were cases of so-called needle spiking with date-rape drugs such as Rohypnol or GHB, used by attackers to render victims confused or unconscious and vulnerable to sexual assault. Some victims were taken to hospital for toxicological tests.
Pricking innocent people with syringes is unspeakably horrible. Those needles could be rusty or contaminated with bacteria, in addition to injecting rape drugs or any other toxins into the victims. This appears to be a misogynist and/or xenophobic attack against women and minorities. If a Russian social media connection is detected, this would be part of the Kremlin's "hybrid warfare" campaign to cause havoc in the West by using "useful idiots" to deplete resources with inexpensive terrorist or sabotage attacks while spreading panic and possibly diseases in the population. This is too soon to tell at the time and we must wait for the investigation to be completed as to who posted the nefarious messages on social media, as well as the identities of the suspects.
