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By Dan Gooding and Hannah Parry
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Police in Paris are hunting for a group of armed men who attempted to kidnap the daughter of a cryptocurrency entrepreneur in broad daylight on Tuesday.
Footage of the attempt shows three masked men jumping out of a delivery van on the Rue Pache in the French capital, and grabbing the woman, 34, and her 2-year-old child, per Le Parisien.
"The Paris JIRS prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the offenses of attempted arrest, kidnapping, sequestration or arbitrary detention committed by an organized gang, violence aggravated by three circumstances for having been committed with a weapon, in a group and by people concealing their faces, participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing a crime," the Paris Prosecutor's Office told Newsweek in a statement.
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The Context
The incident on Tuesday follows two kidnappings in France in 2025, targeting people connected to the cryptocurrency business.
What To Know
The woman and her toddler daughter were targeted on Rue Pache in the 11th Arrondissement on Tuesday.
The child's father intervened and fought off the would-be abductors in a violent struggle, according to the footage, until the masked men gave up and fled. Their abandoned delivery van was later found a few streets away.
Police told Le Parisien that witnesses described hearing screams and seeing "blood everywhere." One local woman tended to the father after the kidnappers fled.
France has seen a growing trend of violent crimes aimed at those with large crypto portfolios or other digital assets.
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In January, the co-founder of Ledger, a French company, David Balland, was kidnapped alongside his partner in Cher, central France. They tortured Balland and cut off one of his fingers while demanding a €10 million ($11.2 million) ransom.
Earlier in May, in the 14th Arrondissement, the father of another crypto entrepreneur was abducted. He was forced into a delivery van in daylight, with his kidnappers demanding between five and seven million Euros in ransom.
What People Are Saying
The Paris Prosecutor's Office, in its statement to Newsweek: "The prosecutor's office deplores the dissemination of the video of the attack. In addition to the attack on the dignity of people to which it contributes, it constitutes a secondary victimization: this looping publication cancels, for the victim, the limits of the space-time of the aggression he or she has suffered, the consequences of which are thus infinitely multiplied."
What Happens Next
As of noon ET, the suspects were still on the run. The investigation, initially handled by the Paris prosecutor's office, was handed over to the Brigade for the Repression of Banditry.
Update 5/13/25, 1:15 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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