Earlier today a man threw a box containing a severed head out of an apartment window in the French city of Toulon. The victim is said to be a homeless man, and the man who did the severing and throwing is thought to be another homeless man. The two vagrants had allegedly spent the night in the apartment.

Police said there was no link to terrorism. There have been no reports of eyewitnesses (earwitnesses?) who heard any shouts of “Allahu Akhbar” at the scene. No names have been released, and there have been no descriptions pointing to any specific ethnic group, so thus far there is no indication of any cultural enrichment in the case.

The cellphone video below was taken at the scene by an eyewitness. Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes and RAIR Foundation for the subtitling:

Many thanks also to Gary Fouse for translating this article from Paris Match:

Toulon: Severed head discovered in carton thrown out of window

February 1, 2021

A severed head was discovered in a carton thrown out of a window of an apartment in Toulon Monday. One man has been arrested.

A man was arrested Monday afternoon in the heart of Toulon after the discovery of a severed head in a cardboard box thrown out of the window of an apartment, Agence France Presse learned from police sources, who ruled out a priori any terrorist connection. The alert was given shortly before 14:30, when passersby saw the carton fall from a window of an apartment on Cours Lafayette, a short distance from the harbor, a spokesperson for DDSP of Var stated to AFP, confirming initial information from the regional daily, Var Matin.

At the window, a man appeared with his hands covered with blood

Shortly after the arrival of the police at the scene, and notably a team from BAC (Anti-Criminality Brigade), a man appeared at the window of the apartment, his hands covered with blood, resulting in the use of RAID police to trigger an intervention. The arrest took place around 3pm after the police broke down the door behind which the suspect had barricaded himself. None of the police were injured during the operation, and the man was arrested, alone in the apartment, unarmed.

“No element allows us to connect this act to a terrorist event,” the Department of Public Security (DDSP) of Var, in charge of the case, insisted to AFP.

According to other police sources, the recovered head could be that of one of two homeless persons who had spent the night in this apartment. An intervention by the municipal police took place during the night due to a fight, according to the same sources. Other than the victim and the person arrested, nobody else was found in the apartment during the police intervention. “This unspeakable act is an expression of the worst of human madness, pushed to its outburst, can produce,” reacted the mayor of Toulon, Hubert Falco, in a statement, noting that “the motivations of the individual who committed this barbaric act are not yet known.” Still, according to the first magistrate of the city, “An investigation is underway, and it seems to be moving in the direction of a horrible news item.”

Video transcript: