Three teens drowned Wednesday in France after the car they were in veered of the road into a private swimming pool, a prosecutor said, in a case possibly linked to laughing gas.
The car smashed into a wall of the private residence, flipped onto its back and fell into the swimming pool with its wheels spinning in the air at around 2:00 am (0100 GMT) in the southern town of Ales, prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini said.
It was not immediately clear which of the young men — aged 14, 15 and 19 — was driving.
“It truly is the height of horror,” Grini said. “They found themselves upside down in freezing water, incapable of getting out.”
The home’s owner, a baker, discovered the car after returning from his night shift at around 6:00 am, the prosecutor said.
A police source told AFP that several bottles of nitrous oxide, or “laughing gas”, were found in the car.
Nitrous oxide is a colourless gas used for pain relief in dentistry and medicine, as well as in catering, for example to make whipped cream.
Recreational use — which produces feelings of euphoria, relaxation and dissociation from reality — has grown in popularity, particularly among young people, who inhale it from balloons.
It is still legal in France for individuals to buy the gas, though lawmakers are trying to push a draft law through parliament to ban its recreational use.
Several towns in France have tried to ban its public consumption and restrict its sale, warning of an increased risk of road accidents.
A driver who had consumed the gas killed a 19-year-old in the northern town of Lille last month.
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