PARIS — A 14-year-old girl, described as a paraplegic by her father, was so badly bitten by rats as she slept one night this month that her family says she was bleeding from her ears as well as her fingers, toes and much of her body. As news of the case has spread well beyond the girl’s hometown, Roubaix, in northern France, just a few minutes from Lille, so, too, have accusations of insufficient garbage pickup in the neighborhood where she and her family lived. The public prosecutor has opened an investigation but beyond verifying that the bites were from rats has not described the inquiry. The prosecutor’s office said it was looking into “involuntary wounds caused by a lack of prudence and security and inhumane housing conditions.”The girl was treated in a hospital in Roubaix, which refused on Saturday to release any information about what happened to her, or about her condition. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyRoubaix is a onetime factory town that was known for its textile manufacturing, but it now has a high number of unemployed people and ranks among France’s poorest communities.

Source: New York Times September 09, 2017 18:00 UTC