According to Yahoo news, a wave of panic sparked by
evil clowns stalking French towns has spread to the south of France where
police on Saturday night arrested 14 teenagers dressed as the pranksters,
carrying pistols, knives and baseball bats.
A police source said Sunday
the group of teens were arrested in the parking lot of a high school in the
Mediterranean port town of Agde, as several other complaints poured in about
"armed clowns" in the region over the weekend.
In the nearby city of
Montpellier a man disguised as a clown was arrested after beating up a
pedestrian with an iron bar, while three motorists in different towns
complained about "scary clowns" threatening them.
The phenomenon of dressing
up as an evil clown and terrifying passers-by -- a trend which has also been
seen in the United States and Britain -- cropped up in the north of France in
early October.
In the northern French town
of Bethune, a 19-year-old received a six-month suspended jail term Monday for
threatening passers-by while dressed as a clown.
These "clowns"
have been "mostly spotted outside schools, but also on public roads, in
bushes, in a square. Their targets are often young children or teenagers, but
also adults," a police source in northern France told AFP.
Theories abound as to the
origin of the trend in a country where the American fear-fest Halloween has yet
to take hold.
The suggestions include a
challenge launched on social networks, a video published on YouTube showing a
terrifying clown pranking people -- which has had some 31 million views -- or
even a recent episode of the popular TV series American Horror Story featuring
Twisty the killer clown.
- Anti-clown vigilantism -
After a rumour a clown was
stalking the eastern French town of Mulhouse, five teenagers on Wednesday armed
themselves with a baseball bat, a teargas canister, a hammer and a truncheon to
mete out vigilante justice to the not-so-funny pranksters.
They were arrested and
later released, but the incident prompted the national police to step in to
quell the hysteria.
"Since mid-October, a
rumour inspired by videos published on the Internet, is worrying the population
about the presence of threatening and aggressive clowns in France," the
national police said in a statement this week.
It cautioned that
"despite numerous reports made to police, there have been only a few
sightings of people dressed as clowns having fun scaring passers-by."
"Symptomatic of the impact
of the Internet, this phenomenon can lead to damaging individual acts and
disturbances to public order," it said.
why will anyone celebrate dis rubbish
ReplyDeleteThink it should be ban in France since it was new and not part of the culture.
ReplyDeletejobless pple taking advantage
ReplyDelete