PARIS (AFP) - French police were on Tuesday (March 9) holding two teenagers in custody after a 14-year-old classmate targeted by online harassment was found beaten and drowned in the Seine river.
The death of the girl late on Monday is the latest bout of teenage bloodletting to shock France, which has in recent months seen a string of violent incidents blamed on teens, highlighting the problem of juvenile crime.
The two 15-year-olds detained in Argenteuil on the outskirts of Paris, a boy and his girlfriend, were arrested in the early hours of Tuesday at the home of a friend.
Local prosecutors said that the boy's mother told police that her son said he and his friend had hit a young girl and she fell into the Seine river, which runs through Paris.
After removing his blood-covered clothes, her son fled the home to join a friend, said a source close to the investigation, who asked not to be named.
Her information then helped police find the body of the teenager in the Seine under a road bridge in the neighbouring suburb of Saint-Denis in northern Paris.
Initial findings showed the victim had "marks of blows to the head and face", prosecutors said, adding that an autopsy would be carried out to determine the cause of death.
Another source close to the investigation said that the victim's mother had indicated the girl had been targeted by harassment and the parents had reported this the evening she disappeared.
"She told me 'mum I have big problems, I was threatened with death by this boy and this girl' and she got into a fight with her a week before", the mother of the victim told BFM TV.
According to pupils outside the school in Argenteuil, the dispute started when photos of the victim "in underwear" circulated on the popular messaging service Snapchat.
"The other girl (who is now under arrest) wrote on social networks that she was a whore. The victim did not like it and it degenerated. It all started with a fight," said a student who asked not to be named.
"The victim spoke to me, she told me that she was being harassed. I saw her fight with the girl who was harassing her in front of the bathroom" last week, she said.
Concern is rising in France over violence between teens. A 15-year-old boy of Ukrainian origin was beaten in Paris in January, with the attack caught on video and going viral.
Last week Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti chaired a meeting of justice and security officials to deal with the problem of teenage gangs, especially in the Pars region.
