File photo : Bedbugs//AFP
Paris, France – The French government said Friday it was launching a concerted effort to fight bedbugs that have appeared in numbers in public transport, cinemas and hospitals.
The blood-sucking insects have been spotted in the Paris metro, high-speed trains and at Paris’s Charles-de-Gaulle Airport, with disgusted travellers posting videos on social media.
Transport Minister Clement Beaune said he was convening representatives from public transport operators next week “to inform them about counter-measures and how to do more for the protection of travellers”.
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Beaune said the aim was to “reassure and protect”.
Bedbugs, which had largely disappeared from daily life by the 1950s, have made a resurgence in recent decades, mostly due to high population densities and more mass transit.
One-tenth of all French…
