‘No one is safe’: Paris battling ‘scourge’ of bed bugs

Videos of bed bugs crawling over seats in the Paris metro and on high-speed trains have gone viral on social media.

The city of light is going to war against a “scourge” of bed bugs that have been spotted and filmed in various public places around Paris.

Residents have been taking to social media in recent days to share footage of the blood-sucking pests crawling over seats in the Paris metro and high-speed trains. There are also reports of bed bugs being spotted in cinemas and even at Charles de Gaulle airport.

The furor over the bed bugs infestation started during Paris Fashion Week and now threatens to put a damper on the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics — only 10 months away — if officials aren’t able to get the pests under control.

“The state urgently needs to put an action plan in place against this scourge as France is preparing to welcome the Olympic and Paralympic games in 2024,” the capital’s deputy mayor, Emmanuel Gregoire, said in a letter to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne this week.

“Bedbugs are a public health issue and should be declared as such,” he wrote.

Gregoire added in a social media post that “no one is safe” from the bed bug infestation. He told French broadcaster LCI that the problem is “widespread” and residents are in danger of bringing bed bugs home if they encounter them in public.