Women ‘spiked’ in nightclub needle attacks

Several women claim to have been stabbed with a needle as they visited nightclubs.

One man has been arrested in connection with incidents at the Pryzm and Stealth nightspots in Nottingham.

Women in Scotland and across the UK are reporting similar attacks.

Zara Owen, a Nottingham University student, said she remembers nothing after going to the bar at Pryzm on October 11 until waking up the following morning with a shooting pain in her leg.

The sister of a second victim described how she collapsed after ‘feeling a pinch’ on her arm as she left Stealth.

Detectives are looking at toxicology reports and CCTv footage after other women reported feeling a ‘scratching sensation’ as though ‘physically spiked’ with a needle.

victims say they have been pierced in their leg, hand and back. Similar incidents have been reported north of the Border, including in Dundee, Stirling and edinburgh, with men and women targeted.

Yesterday Miss Owen, 19, from Surrey, wrote online: ‘It’s very scary something like this can happen.’ another student was taken to hospital after she blacked out after leaving the Stealth club on October 12. She believes that she was injected with an unknown liquid.

an edinburgh University student, who has not been named, also fears she was given an injection at a club in the city where she did not have a drink.

a friend said: ‘She was pretty much sober and within half an hour she had completely lost her memory and she couldn’t walk.’

action groups are now being set up to urge women to stay safe. a Girls Night In event, planned for October 28, is being organised by students at edinburgh University.

The campaign has attracted 3,000 followers.

In Nottingham, the Girls Night group is encouraging women to boycott nightclubs on October 27 to ‘ensure the issue of spiking is taken seriously’.

a spokesman for Pryzm Nottingham urged anybody who sees suspicious behaviour to report it to its security staff and the police. a spokesman for Stealth said: ‘We have had two women who suspected they might have been spiked.

‘We are liaising with police to aid in their investigations.’

Superintendent Kathryn Craner, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: ‘We have arrested and conditionally bailed a local male as part of our investigations, which continue.’

a Scottish ambulance Service spokesman said: ‘If you suspect you have been injected without your consent, call NHS 24 on 111 or visit your GP as soon as possible.’

‘She lost her memory’