A 57-year-old woman in France defended herself against a would-be rapist by biting a piece of the Tunisian’s tongue off as he tried to sexually abuse her.
The incident occurred at around 4 am on Sunday morning in the Saint-Jean district of the city of Avignon and saw the Tunisian, said to be in his thirties, follow the 57-year-old woman as she was walking her dog.
The man approached the victim and allegedly tried to grab her and force himself on her, putting his hand down her trousers but as the woman struggled she managed to bite off a piece of the man’s tongue, which she kept, Francebleu reports.
The woman returned to her home, keeping hold of the part of the man’s tongue she bit off and went to a local police station along with her son, where she presented the piece of the tongue to officials.
Police found the wounded Tunisian, who is in France illegally, a short time later and managed to place him in custody but he told officials that the woman was the one who had attacked him. The Tunisian faces immediate trial and a verdict in the case is expected this week.
The bizarre case echoes a similar incident in Spain that took place in 2021 and saw a woman originally from Bangladesh cut off the penis of her would-be rapist, also a Bangladeshi national.
The pair were working together in a bar in Sant Andreu de la Barca near Barcelona when the man attempted to force the woman into having sex with him after an alleged series of cases of sexual harassment beforehand.
Both the man and the woman were later arrested by Spanish police, for attempted rape and for assault and amputation respectively. Both were also said to have had prior criminal records.
The safety and security situation in France remains a major concern for many people living in the country, with a recent poll published in December suggesting that as many as two-thirds of French people are concerned over their personal safety in their day-to-day lives.
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