A 17-year-old African student has been charged and placed in pretrial detention after attacking three women near the Villiers-sur-Marne train station, east of Paris, between June 17 and July 23.
The first victim, 26, was attacked while walking home after traveling from Paris. Police later recovered DNA from her clothing.
A month later, a 29-year-old woman was attacked in the same area. She had activated her phone’s audio recorder after becoming suspicious, and a nearby resident’s intervention caused the assailant to flee.
Police then deployed officers around the station. They followed the suspect as he approached women and arrested him after he attacked a third woman, 31, with a knife.
Investigators say the teenager admitted the three attacks during questioning and mentioned another possible victim from early June.