Police in Nîmes rescued an eight-year-old boy on Friday night after his mother and stepfather locked him inside an overheated room without food or water for several weeks.
Multiple officers from the National Police and National Gendarmerie arrived at the public housing apartment complex at around 10 p.m. on August 14 to free the child.
Neighbors living in the building had sustained the boy by lowering provisions to him using a rope tied from an upstairs window down to his bedroom at dusk.
Emotional residents gathered outside the building to applaud the officers and the young boy as he was led to safety, with locals stating that their swift mobilization likely saved his life.
Neighbor intervention and warning signs
The child had been enduring severe mistreatment for at least two years before his rescue, according to regional newspaper Midi Libre.
A neighbor told reporters that initial warning signs appeared in 2024 when the boy attempted to run away at six years old and was found wandering alone at the Nîmes train station.
The neighbor added that the child was found again in a subsequent incident, crying at a bus stop while barefoot and bare-chested.
Residents in the building were unanimous in describing how the child was confined to an overheated room without access to basic food or water.
Ongoing safety concerns for infant
The rescue took place in a public housing building, known in France as an HLM (habitation à loyer modéré), located in Nîmes, the administrative capital of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of southern France.
Alerted by his previous runaway attempts and visible distress, occupants of the apartment directly above his window had taken action to feed him each evening.
While residents expressed relief at the boy's rescue, they remain deeply concerned for his eight-month-old sister.
The infant girl remains in the custody of the mother and stepfather at this stage, following the operation by local law enforcement.
The rescue operation and surrounding circumstances were reported by Midi Libre and published by regional news outlet La Dépêche du Midi.
