A 15-year-old student protesting against France’s dilapidated and understaffed schools lost his hand on Monday after picking up a police stun grenade in the northern town of Lens, a local official told reporters.
Police-students clash in multiple cities
Around 5,000 people, mostly teenagers, have been arrested nationwide since last Monday, with dozens injured. Paris police chief Patrice Faure, in an open letter published on X, claimed that those who initially launched the protests no longer had control over them and urged students to abandon blockades in favour of peaceful demonstrations. An investigation has been opened into the incident, the official added. The incident came as hundreds of French schools entered a second consecutive week of closures, a day ahead of a nationwide day of nationwide demonstrations. Broadcaster BMFTV also showed a fire being lit as protesters attempted to break into a school in central Paris. Police and firefighters quickly extinguished the capital blaze. The school was evacuated and classes were suspended. Teachers and members of the public have also been attacked, while property damage is estimated to have reached tens of millions of euros.
On Monday, clashes broke out between police and students in Lille in northern France, the country’s third-largest city, while tear gas was deployed in Toulouse in the southwest.