And on a notice board in Nanterre, now scrawled with graffiti saying “Cops, get out of our lives,” a city hall announcement from May advertised a ceremony commemorating the abolition of slavery.

He had set his sights a little higher - at least in terms of altitude - and dreamed of going to space after replying to a notice board advert.

A message posted on a notice board beside a department store read, “Curfew from 6 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Violators will be shot.”

At the entrance of a campus in Bamenda - the main city in the North-West region - were hundreds of science students, who had all passed their A-Levels, scrambling to find their names on the notice board.

The teenager was then moved to the train station next door on a notice board before being transferred to an ambulance.