Child strangled in Rennes: two teenagers in police custody
An 11-year-old boy was found dead in a wooded area on the banks of the Vilaine in Rennes. Two teenagers, who were seen with the victim on the day of the tragedy, are in police custody.
Two teenagers questioned following the death of an 11-year-old child in Rennes
Two teenagers were placed in police custody on Monday as part of the investigation into the death of an 11-year-old boy found strangled on Sunday in Rennes, according to RTBF Info. According to Frédéric Teillet, the prosecutor for the Republic of Rennes, "these are the two young people who were seen in the company of the victim at the scene in the afternoon of the tragedy".
The first suspect, a young man, was arrested on Monday morning "at his home". The second, a teenage girl, presented herself "voluntarily at Rennes police station", Teillet specified in a statement. The public prosecutor's office also corrected the victim's age: the child was 11 years old and not 12 years old, as initially stated.
Body discovered by a fisherman
The boy was found in a wooded area on a bank of the Vilaine, in a residential neighbourhood of Rennes located about ten minutes' walk from Place du Parlement de Bretagne. According to a police source, the alert was raised at around 16:40 on Sunday, after a fisherman heard a child's cries but was unable to locate him, and then alerted the police. "Despite the call from witnesses who discovered the body, emergency services were unable to revive the child", the public prosecutor's office had stated in a statement released on Sunday evening.
On Monday morning, numerous police officers were still present at the scene, with security tape blocking access to the location where the body had been found. Divers in wetsuits searched the river for evidence, according to an AFP journalist present at the scene.
A residential neighbourhood in shock
The area, nicknamed "little California" by residents, is described as relatively affluent. Amaury, a 49-year-old craftsman who preferred not to give his surname, explains that a camp is located nearby. "When we heard the firefighters and police yesterday, we thought someone had fallen into the Vilaine", he says. "Then we learned what happened and police came to question us. Is it a game played by stupid teenagers that went wrong or some twisted person who attacked him?", he wonders, summing up the two hypotheses mentioned by several residents questioned by AFP.
His wife asked one of her children not to go fishing in the area until more is known about the exact circumstances of the tragedy.
Daniel Enocq, 63, a caretaker living on the other side of the bank, qualifies the peaceful image of the neighbourhood. "A quiet neighbourhood? Not really… There are people sleeping rough and there's a detoxification centre nearby, no it's not secure", he says. He himself fishes regularly at the exact spot where the body was found. He also recalls that a woman in her seventies was killed in her home in March 2025 in a building situated right next door, a case in which a man in his forties was placed under investigation for rape and murder. "It's a tragedy. My guess is that it's a matter between kids themselves", he suggests.
A 29-year-old woman, who requested anonymity, said she was "completely surprised" on learning the news. "I am a mother of two children aged six and three, we think it could be ours", she confides.
The investigation continues. The exact circumstances of the death have not yet been officially established by the Rennes public prosecutor's office.
Source: RTBF Info