More than 240 people were arrested, two people stabbed, and many others r@ped, 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, June 22, at the Fête de la Musique – a nationwide street party attended by thousands of British people.
Police also reported two alleged r@pes, multiple other s£xual assaults, muggings, and girls being stabbed with syringes.
The male victim was stabbed close to midnight in the south west city of Toulouse while the woman was knifed in nearby Colomiers soon afterwards.
Both were admitted to hospital on Monday and described as being “in a stable condition”.
An investigating source said: “Camera footage of the Fête de la Musique is being studied to try and find those using knives to stab people.”
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 r@ped 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 s£xually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
In Nogent-sur-Marne, another Paris suburb, a 15-year-old girl also reported being r@ped 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.
“Streets became dangerously overcrowded, and trouble makers took advantage,” said a British witness, who asked to be referred to as Steve.
A group of young men, some in Paris St Germain football shirts, began punching people, causing chaos.
“People were screaming, and there was a real fear that the fighting would cause a massive crush as people tried to get away,” an eyewitness said.
There was also trouble across the River Seine, in the St Germain de Prés district, where officers used tear gas to control crowds.
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.
Mr Macron said: “We are all going to be very vigilant, and you have to be vigilant yourselves – for yourselves, for your loved ones, for the most vulnerable.
“It is very important to follow all the recommendations, to celebrate and to be happy at this time, but to be so while being vigilant about the temperature.”