An 18-year-old student dies after an integration evening in Compiègne, his family denounces hazing

He had just turned 18 and seemed to have his life ahead of him. However, an evening between students turned into a tragedy for Lukas B. at the end of August. Originally from Val-de-Marne, he was about to begin his second year at the University of Technology of Compiègne (Oise) when he was invited to a pre-integration evening between old and new members of the establishment in a private apartment on August 22.

There, the alcohol flows freely, to the rhythm of the games proposed by the organizers of the evening. Lukas hardly drinks according to his mother Cinzia, interviewed by Le Parisien. Despite everything, he strives to participate in the events between “the reds and the yellows”, he who likes to get involved in the associative life of the university.

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Cinzia continues: “My son was the mascot of the red clan in 2025. The goal was to transfer power between the leaders and mascots of last year and the new ones. There were eight of them, but other students were present.” In videos of the evening to which the mother had access, the young adult is forced to drink large quantities of alcohol in one go under penalty of “punishment”.

“For me, it’s hazing”

“Lukas hardly drank. He was not used to it and had told others so. For me, it’s hazing,” says Cinzia, who assures that her son would have complied so as not to disappoint the other students. At 10 p.m., the evening ends and the second-year student is accompanied to his studio by friends. He goes to bed alone at home according to our colleagues from Le Parisien.

That’s where the trouble starts… “At 2 a.m., he called Samu. He wasn’t doing well,” his mother confided. “He was transported to the emergency room of the Compiègne hospital center at 3 a.m.”. Arriving there, he is placed in a bed where he falls asleep, swearing never to drink again in his life. “At 5 a.m. the nurse came by and noticed he was breathing. At 6 a.m., when she returned, he was no longer breathing. His death was not declared until 9 a.m.,” says Cinzia.

To this day, the causes of Lukas B.'s death are still unknown. Contacted by Le Figaro, the Compiègne public prosecutor's office indicates that "an investigation into the causes of death was opened following the death of this young man on the night of August 23, and entrusted to the local judicial police service of the Compiègne police station." According to this same source, an autopsy was carried out and made it possible to exclude any intervention by a third party. “The search for the causes of death is still ongoing,” concludes the public prosecutor.

A complaint against X filed

For its part, the family indicated that it had filed a complaint against “The police station has not received any complaints directly to the service and I have not yet become aware of a complaint filed with the public prosecutor's office for the moment, but it is possible that it was filed at the place of residence and therefore in transit to our services,” confirms Caroline Gaziot, public prosecutor.

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“We are still waiting for the toxicological results (…) We do not know what our son died of. He played volleyball at a high level, did electrocardiograms, saw a doctor. He had no known allergies, no health problems. I want to know what happened. I want to know what killed him,” chokes Cinzia, who only found out ten hours after the events that her son had died, from the father of one of Lukas’s friends. “Lukas had just turned 18. His birthday was in June. We miss him, his little brother misses him,” concludes the bereaved mother.

After this tragedy, a psychological unit was opened by the university, which paid tribute to the young man by notably setting up a minute of silence at the start of the school year. The management, for its part, assures that it was not informed of the evening and its progress, the students being adults and the party not having taken place within the premises of the establishment. The UTC also recalls that it was one of the first schools to ban hazing in France.