Media doubtful of ‘train attack’

A YOUNG mother who claimed to have been the victim of a train attack that stunned France was yesterday detained by police as doubts were raised about the truth of her story.

Four days after the woman said she was robbed by a knife-wielding gang that mistook her for a Jew and scrawled swastikas on her body, police had no witnesses and few clues. Media suggested the woman had a history of crying wolf.

Police said the woman was detained so investigators could “clarify the obscure points” of her account.

Last Friday’s alleged attack against the young woman in a suburban Paris train outraged France, drawing fierce condemnation from politicians and Jewish groups.

The woman told police the men were of North African and African origin and that no-one came to her rescue as the gang robbed her and overturned her stroller causing her baby to tumble out. Neither she nor the child were seriously hurt.

Newspapers gave the story front-page prominence on Monday with headlines like “The Train of Hate.”

But by yesterday, front pages were universally sceptical, with Liberation saying the woman’s account was full of “grey areas” and “contradictions.”

Surveillance cameras at the station where the culprits reportedly left the train showed no young men running from the scene, and none of the alleged 20 witnesses have come forward despite promises of anonymity.

Both France-Info radio and the television station LCI reported that the young woman had filed several spurious complaints for violence and aggression in the past.

Justice Minister Dominique Perben urged the public to be patient and wait for investigators to reach a conclusion.