The Fête de la Musique, a popular annual music festival held across the country, descended into violence last week, June 21, 2025, with over 1,500 people reportedly injured, 51 vehicles set on fire, and 371 individuals arrested following widespread clashes.
During the annual Fête de la Musique festival, men stabbed over 100 women with syringes and poisoned them. Many of the attacks are happening in Paris.
Thirteen police officers were injured in the unrest. Videos shared by RMX News show crowds of women fleeing in panic as gunshots rang out in the background.
In Paris alone, the French Interior Ministry confirmed 21 separate syringe attack incidents, and 12 male suspects have been arrested so far.
It is worth noting that this male violence against women wasn’t random. Men circulated calls to attack women on social media in the days leading up to the festival. The male attackers, many of them minors, used syringes as weapons, leaving several women in critical condition and many others uncertain about what substances were injected into their bodies.
The French Ministry of the Interior confirmed that 145 women across the country filed complaints after being pricked by syringes during the June 21 celebrations. Footage from the festival captured the scale of chaos. One viral video shows crowds stampeding after a gunshot is heard during a police crackdown. Another clip features a violent street fight between festival attendees.
In total, 107 men were taken into custody for sexual assault, knife violence, armed robbery, drug dealing, and violence against women and public officers.
