On Saturday, fourteen teenagers dressed as clowns and carrying pistols, knives and baseball bats were arrested outside a school in Agde, southern France.

A number of images of youths in the city dressed as clowns were seen on social media over the weekend.

In Montpellier, a 35-year-old man was beaten with a metal rod on Saturday night by a man dressed as a clown who tried to rob him with two accomplices. They were arrested the next day.

The incidents, which began in the North, have now been reported around the country.

One of the earlier cases went to court last week: a 19-year-old butcher's apprentice, who had dressed as a clown to scare children in Douvrin, northern France, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence at a court in Béthune. He'd apparently terrorised children while holding a stick that resembled a long knife.

According to the Guardian he told the judge: "I saw it on Facebook. At first it was a joke, to scare my friends by dressing up as a clown and shouting boo with a stick like on Facebook. On the video it was a knife, but I didn't intend to hurt anyone."