Moi aussi? Conflicted France at last tackles sexual harassment

Thousands contact pioneering 'chat' project set up by police to help victims of abuse

On the third floor of a modern police station west of Paris, an alert sounds and one of four officers - three women and a man - seated around a block of desks begins typing. Somewhere in France or one of its overseas territories, someone is reporting a sexual assault, sexist harassment or discrimination to a 24-hour chatline.

The police station at Guyancourt, 20km from the capital is the heart of the French government's #NeRienLaisserPasser (#Don'tLetAnythingGo) project, part of its response to the #MeToo movement and, say officials, the first online portal of its kind in the world.