PARIS (Reuters) – More than 2,000 people marched on Sunday in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil in tribute to a schoolgirl who was found drowned in the river Seine, in a case that has shocked France.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday that two French teenagers were under investigation for murder after police fished the body of the drowned schoolgirl out of the Seine.
They said the teenagers, a boy and a girl, both aged 15, had met the 14-year-old girl, whom they knew, in Argenteuil, west of Paris. The boy had beaten her and then with his girlfriend’s help thrown her into the river, where she drowned.
French media reported that the victim had been bullied at school and that nude pictures of her had been hacked and circulated on social media.
Le Parisien newspaper said more than 2,500 people participated in Sunday’s march, which started at the girl’s school.
France has seen a spate of youth killings in recent weeks, mostly involving gangs, putting growing pressure on the government.
Junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa said on France Info radio that a committee of parents would be set up in the coming week to address the problem of harassment at school.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Edmund Blair)
