The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to CNN on Thursday that a police investigation has been started after a parcel containing a human fingertip that had been broken up was delivered to French President Emmanuel Macron’s official residence.
The Elysee Palace received “a piece of a finger, a fingertip it seems,” according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The police opened a file for a “threat of a crime or offence against an elected official” on Monday, it was also stated in the statement.
Separately, Politico stated that the fingertip belonged to the package’s sender, who has a mental illness, according French newswire AFP. At the start of the week, staffers for President Emmanuel Macron reported the horrifying discovery.
Elysee Palace has not yet responded to the report.
The official residence of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been in office since 2017, is the Elysee Palace in Paris.
The discovery of the severed fingertip, meantime, came days after France experienced violent demonstrations in response to the fatal shooting of Nahel Merzouk, 17, during a traffic stop in June. Protesters have been carrying placards that read “the police kill” for weeks. While riot police troops engaged in heavy combat with protesters, the rioters even caused damage to hundreds of government facilities.
In an effort to heal tensions and bring the nation together in his second term, French President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency meeting with ministers in response to the disturbance. In addition, Mr. Macron asked TikTok and Snapchat to remove their “most sensitive content” and to identify individuals who use social media to “call for disorder or to exacerbate violence” in order to quell the protests.
