A man had part of his chin bitten off in an attack at a bus stop in Avignon, southern France, after refusing to give a cigarette to a stranger. Police found the victim bleeding from a 4cm (1.5in) wound across his chin when they responded to the incident at 8.20am on Saturday.
Attack and Arrest
All three men at the scene were taken to the police station. There, the victim filed a complaint, claiming that the two men approached him and asked for a cigarette. When he refused, one of the men became aggressive and bit him on the face, tearing away a chunk of his chin.
CCTV footage showed the other man standing in the background as the assailant launched the attack. Both men were arrested, and it was later revealed that one of the suspects was already under an OQTF – an official order to leave French territory. The other is a Somali national with legal residency status, police said.
Legal Proceedings
Both men are set to appear before a judge on June 25, 2027.
Similar Incident in the US
Last year, a 41-year-old man in the US was given life-changing surgery after having his nose bitten off while stepping in to stop a young woman being harassed. Tyson Carter, 41, was beaten by two men at a bus stop in Brentwood, New York, before one of them launched into the vicious attack, leaving him with much of his nose missing.
Less than a week later, doctors at Long Island Jewish Medical Centre reconstructed Carter's nose with skin grafts from his forehead and tissue from his arm. The team used a 3D model based on selfies and pictures of Carter before carrying out the procedure.
"For me, the biggest issue was more the fact that I need my glasses to see and, with so much of it being gone, I couldn't wear them," Mr Carter said after his surgery.
