Footage circulating on social media of a 13-year-old schoolgirl being savagely beaten by a group of youths in France has sparked a police investigation into the incident.
The shocking video shows an incident that occurred on Oct. 10 at around 6 p.m. in the 9th arrondissement of Lyon, according to Current Values journalist Amaury Bucco.
The victim was lured out of school into the basement of a nearby building where she was kidnapped and viciously assaulted by several other girls — all of whom are also believed to be minors — as another filmed the attack on her cell phone.
It is understood the victim had filed a complaint of sexual assault against one of her attacker’s brothers named Yassine.
The recipient of the complaint’s sister, dressed in an Islamic headdress, leads the attack by repeatedly kicking her victim and dealing several blows to the head. She can be heard calling the schoolgirl a “dirty whore” and warning her not to say things about her brother as the girl begs for her tormentors to stop.
The victim reportedly lost consciousness before eventually fleeing the basement and seeking help. She was approached by a passerby who contacted the authorities and was later taken to the Femme Mère Enfant hospital in Bron by her mother.
The surfacing of the footage has sparked uproar across France and dominated news headlines on Friday, with local mayor Pierre Oliver telling BFMTV the “area “neighborhood is now run by religious gangs.”
It was later reported that four girls had been arrested for the attack and have been placed in custody. This followed one of the perpetrators going to the police station herself on Thursday evening wanting to file a complaint herself, claiming she was a victim as she had been targeted by numerous threats since the footage had gone viral.
BFMTV’s justice correspondent said that social media had helped to bring the authorities’ attention to the attack and caused them to act.
“Everything accelerated with the broadcast of this video, we saw that it spread like wildfire on social networks,” he said.
