France has also seen its fair share of clown horror. In October 2014, Police in Adge, a Mediterranean port in the South of France, who were chasing locals and "laughing manically." The teenagers were carrying pistols, knives and baseball bats.

The same month, a person dressed as a clown after beating a 35-year-old pedestrian with an iron bar. A student in Besançon trying to defend himself from an ax-wielding clown. , four fake clowns terrified school students with a chainsaw. The disturbing sightings became so common that a town in southern France French police social media for the Wasco and Northampton copycats sparking the bout of terror.

"Since mid-October, a rumor inspired by videos ... has created the presence of threatening and aggressive clowns in France," a French national police spokesman said at the time.

The videos are from DM Pranks, a YouTube channel created by an Italian duo that went viral for their in 2014. In the videos, the pair dress up as clowns and terrify unsuspecting passers-by — including chasing pedestrians with giant mallets and chainsaws. Their videos have over 527 million combined views.

"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," a 19-year-old told a judge and terrorizing people in Béthune. "I didn't intend to hurt anyone."