Brits Are Caught Up in Terrifying Night of Violence as French Music Festival Descends Into Stabbings and Rapes

More than 240 people were arrested, two people stabbed, and others raped, as France’s biggest open air music festival descended into intense violence.

The 40-year-old man and woman, who have not been named, were attacked in the early hours of Monday at the Fête de la Musique – a nationwide ‘street party’ attended by thousands of British people.

Police also reported two alleged rapes, multiple other sexual assaults, muggings, and girls being stabbed with syringes, on a night of anarchy.

It was in the south west city of Toulouse that a male victim was knifed, close to midnight, while the woman was knifed in nearby Colomiers soon afterwards.

On Monday, both were in hospital and described as being ‘in a stable condition’.

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There were also attacks on the streets of Paris, as thugs started fights in the centre of the city.

Car windows were smashed, and attempts made to break into shops, while thefts were commonplace.

There were some 148 arrests in Paris alone, according to an Interior Ministry spokesman, and ‘243 across France as a whole’.

More than ten incidents of women being attacked with syringes were reported, as unidentified substances were injected inside them.

And a man was briefly detained for ‘carrying syringes on his belt’ in Paris, before running away.

A young woman in the 9th arrondissement was stung and then raped by a man in a private residence around 9.30pm, said the Interior Ministry spokesman.

In the northern suburb of Gagny, a 48-year-old man was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.

And in Nogent-sur-Marne, another Paris suburb, a 15-year-old girl also reported being raped after attending a concert.

More than two million people attended the festival in Paris, where the first trouble started soon after 11pm, in the Châtelet area of the city, close to Notre Dame Cathedral.

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It followed President Emmanuel Macron pleading for calm, after Paris St Germain (PSG) supporters went on the rampage through the city following their team’s victory over Arsenal in the European Champions League Final last month.

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