A video titled "honte à la police francaise" showing a police officer in the central city of Tours brutally beating a woman and spraying tear gas in her face went viral and sparked nationwide outrage in France.
French prosecutors have responded to the video's more than one and a half million views by launching an investigation into the incident.
The events depicted in the video show two police officers early on Sunday in what started as a routine drunk driving arrest, but quickly escalated into what many believe is a clear example of excessive force on the part of the police.
The footage does not show the beginning of the altercation, which allegedly began in earnest when the vehicle's driver refused to submit to an alcohol test, according to local newspaper La Nouvelle Republique.
A female passenger intervened and repeatedly bit one of the officers, according to the report, which cited police sources.
The footage shows the two engaged in a wrestling match in the middle of the street before the officer strikes the woman repeatedly with his baton.
The enraged officer then retrieves what appears to be pepper spray from his car and sprays it directly into the woman's face and later at another passenger before reinforcements arrive at the scene.
France's Interior Minister announced on Tuesday that he had referred the incident to the nation's police oversight arm.
A police union representative called for cooler heads to prevail noting the officer's reaction was in response to having been pinned down and bitten three times by the woman.
"The video may seem shocking but we don't know the context," said Gaelle James of Synergie Officiers, France's second-largest police union, to AFP.
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