French politicians have rallied in support of a woman who was hit by a man when she stood up to him after he harassed her in the street, calling the attack “unacceptable”, “revolting” and “intolerable behaviour”, reports The Guardian.
“Total solidarity! Thank you Marie Laguerre for your courage! Stop harassment!” Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, wrote in response to a tweet by the victim of the attack, 22-year-old architecture student Marie Laguerre.
CCTV footage of the event, shared online by Laguerre, shows her walking near a cafe in Paris when a man says something to her. There is no audio of the interaction, but Laguerre alleges he made “dirty noises, comments and whistled”, to which she responded by saying “Ta gueule!” or “Shut up”.
After they parted, the video shows the man turning and throwing an ashtray at Laguerre, which narrowly misses her. He then walks purposefully toward her and hits her in the head so that she stumbles and falls against the glass barrier of a cafe terrace.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry into the incident, but so far the attacker has not been identified.