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Agence France-Presse

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern) has launched an investigation into a video filmed at night on its Geneva campus depicting a mock ritual human sacrifice, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
The bizarre video which has circulated online for days shows several individuals in black cloaks gathering in a main square at Europe’s top physics lab, in what appears to be a re-enactment of an occult ceremony.
The video includes the staged “stabbing” of a woman.
“These scenes were filmed on our premises, but without official permission or knowledge,” a Cern spokeswoman said in an email. 
“Cern does not condone this type of spoof, which can give rise to misunderstandings about the scientific nature of our work,” she added.
The “investigation” under way was an “internal matter”, she said.
The video has raised questions about security on Cern’s campus.
Asked to detail the security procedures surrounding access to the campus, the Cern spokeswoman said: “Cern IDs are checked systematically at each entry to the Cern site whether it is night or day.”
She further indicated that those responsible for the prank had access badges.
“Cern welcomes every year thousands of scientific users from all over the world and sometimes some of them let their humour go too far. This is what happened on this occasion,” the email said.
The spokeswoman was not available to comment the possible identity of those responsible.
Geneva police said they had been in contact with Cern about the video but were not involved in an official investigation.
Cern hosts machinery carrying out some of the world’s most elaborate particle research, including an enormously powerful proton smasher trying to find previously undiscovered particles.


Stab in the dark: Cern nuclear lab investigates bizarre ‘human sacrifice’ video filmed on site

A screenshot of the video showing a fake human sacrifice on the grounds of the Cern laboratory outside Geneva. Photo: YouTube

(FILES) This file photo taken on February 10, 2015 shows the Globe of Science and Innovation at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin, near Geneva. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has launched an investigation into a video filmed at night on its Geneva campus depicting a mock ritual human sacrifice, a spokeswoman said on August 17, 2016. The bizarre video which has circulated online for days shows several individuals in black cloaks gathering in a main square at Europe's top physics lab, in what appears to be a re-enactment of an occult ceremony. / AFP PHOTO / Richard Juilliart

FILE -In this March 22, 2007 file photo, the magnet core of the world's largest superconducting solenoid magnet (CMS, Compact Muon Solenoid) at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator, in Geneva, Switzerland. Disappointed physicists from the Large Hadron Collider report that what initially could have been an intriguing new particle turned out just to a statistical burp. Last December, researchers at the European Center for Nuclear Research saw two readings of what could have been a new particle that would not have fit with the existing main physics theory. The same center in 2012 discovered the Higgs boson or “God particle.” (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, File)

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