By Stefan Ferrari and Charleen Eckert
According to her own statements, the Australian singer Zoé Zanias was attacked with a syringe in the Berlin scene club Berghain and had to be resuscitated.
On Instagram, Zanias (real name Alison Lewis) reports that she had trouble breathing on the dance floor, collapsed and had to be resuscitated. The singer writes, “I felt numbness, temporary amnesia, a dry mouth and a sore throat.”
She claims to have found a puncture mark on her arm, which is said to indicate “needle spiking”.
In this phenomenon, people are injected with a substance to drug them. The first cases were reported from Great Britain and France at the end of 2021. In September and October 2021 alone, the British police registered more than 200 needle attacks in which people with drugs in syringes or knockout drops in drinks were attacked.
On May 25, the We R Young youth festival in Hasselt, Belgium, was canceled after several young women reported symptoms similar to Zanias. Is the “spiking” phenomenon now also spilling over to Germany?
No action, no ad, no blood test
When asked by the BZ, the Berlin police said that there was no report of the incident that singer Zanias describes on Instagram and that the case was not recorded by the police or the Berlin fire brigade. There was also no rescue operation at the club.
A police spokesman: “It is unclear by whom the woman was resuscitated. But at least not by the Berlin rescue workers.” There are no comparable ads either.
It’s unclear if Zanias was actually the victim of a needle spiking attack. The singer did not have a blood test done after the incident.
According to Zanias, she didn’t have a blackout; rather, she experienced the entire situation like an “abstract psychedelic horror trip,” according to her description. Even after the rescue workers were deployed, she was completely dazed, could neither walk nor hear and could hardly see. “I was totally disoriented and am still traumatized,” she continues.
The Berlin Club Commission is concerned, but has so far also had no knowledge of “spiking” attacks. Compared to the “Berliner Morgenpost” it was said that they wanted to exchange information with the responsible specialist departments, not to stir up panic.
According to the newspaper, from 2019 to 2021 there were a total of 445 crimes related to knockout drops in Berlin. The investigators are not aware of any injection attacks.
In the comments under Zanias’ Instagram post, people report who or whose friends want to have experienced comparable situations in clubs and in Berghain.
Woman reports attack on the dance floor
In the night from Sunday to Monday, a second woman is said to have been attacked on the dance floor of the Berlin scene club.
“Liflia” writes on her Instagram profile: “The guy stood in the middle of the Berghain dance floor, grabbed my hand and started kissing it. At the same time he put his other hand on my stomach, the needle must have been between my fingers.”
The woman writes that she was taken to the emergency room, her vision blurred. She tells the perpetrator that he is around 30 years old and about 1.80 meters tall. He has short brown hair and has a three-day beard. He had noticeably large eyes, and he wore a bandage on his right hand. The club has not yet responded to a request from the “Berliner Zeitung”.
Both the Australian singer and the alleged second victim ask for caution. “Take care of your friends and be careful out there,” writes Zoé Zanias.
