The daughter of a cryptocurrency CEO and her 2-year-old child were attacked by a group of knife-wielding kidnappers in the center of Paris on Tuesday, harrowing video shows.
The scene unfolded on the same morning Kim Kardashian arrived at a Paris court to testify in a jewelry heist trial wearing a $3 million diamond necklace — less than two miles away.
Footage of the attack shows the moment the masked men violently try to force the woman, 34, into their van with her 2-year-old daughter as she screams for help.
The men try to force the woman into a Chronopost delivery van before they’re scared off by a heroic passerby who chases them with a fire extinguisher, hurling it at them as the suspects run away.
The victims were also saved by the child’s father, 30, who shielded them with his body and suffered multiple blows and a possible stab wound from the would-be kidnappers, Le Parisien reported.
The victims in Tuesday’s attack were identified only as the family of a CEO of a cryptocurrency purchasing platform, according to local media.
The suspects remain on the run after their vehicle was found in the same borough near Rue Pache in the 11th arrondissement.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said officials are investigating the attempted kidnapping and motive given the family’s ties to the crypto industry.
There has been a spate of such violent crimes aimed at crypto millionaires, given that their fortunes are decentralized and much harder to trace than euros.
Earlier this year, the co-founder of the crypto company Ledger was kidnapped along with his wife from their home France and held for ransom.
A similar incident occurred in the US in March, when a pair of crypto millionaires found their home raided by thieves who were after their fortune.
