A man has been caught on camera slapping a woman on the streets of Paris after he allegedly sexually harassed her.
Marie Laguerre, 22, was walking by a cafe when she alleged a man started whistling and calling her "dirty words" as they passed her, last Tuesday.
"It wasn't the first time - that day, that week, or that month, it had been building up. I got angry and said 'shut up'. I didn't think he'd hear, but he did," she said, BBC has reported.
As she walked away, the man allegedly picked up an ashtray and launched it in her direction.
He then walked towards her and suddenly slapped her as the pair came face-to-face.
Marie Laguerre was slapped in the streets of Paris by an unknown man. Source: Facebook: Marie Laguerre
"I know he's going to hit me. I could have run off but there was no question of that. I wasn't going to look down and certainly wasn't going to apologise," she said.
Witnesses at the cafe immediately came to the defence of Ms Laguerre, with one man picking up a chair to scare the attacker off.
The owner of the cafe gave Ms Laguerre the CCTV footage so she could help raise awareness about violence against women.
"I can't keep quiet and we mustn't stay silent," she wrote on Facebook.
The Paris prosecutor has opened an investigation into the incident but has so far been unable to identify the man.
The video has shocked the country, with France's Gender Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa saying the woman's courage in sharing the video had placed a spotlight on sexual harassment.
"I would like to salute the courage of this young woman, Marie, who has positioned herself as a whistle-blower and this allows people who were skeptical on sexual harassment to see what it really looks like," she said, according to CNN.
The French Senate recently passed a bill to help fine men who whistle or sexually harass women on the streets in a bid to make sure "women are not afraid to be outside", according to President Emmanuel Macron.
The bill is yet to formally be signed and implemented.
