A 15-year-old student lost a hand after reportedly picking up a police grenade during nationwide protests over classroom conditions that have disrupted lessons at hundreds of schools since last week.
While some students returned to class, others continued demonstrations outside their schools as the country prepared for larger protests expected on Tuesday.
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Authorities said the teenager was injured in Lens, a town in northern France.
A source from a police union said the student appeared to have picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot police before it exploded in his hand.
The unrest comes only months before the 2027 elections, which will determine the successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
The government has pledged to respond to protesters’ grievances, while accusing hard-left activists of taking control of the movement.
On Monday, the French Human Rights League (LDH) accused security forces of using disproportionate tactics against demonstrators, many of whom are legally minors.
“We can see that in the instructions given to the police, there is no directive to show restraint, even though they are dealing with children,” LDH president Nathalie Tehio said.
Dustbins ablaze
More than 400 of France’s 3,700 high schools, known as lycees, were partly or entirely closed on Monday morning, according to the education ministry.
Authorities said about one-third of the 468 lycees serving teenagers aged 15 to 17 in the Paris region were expected to shut.
In central Paris, dozens of teenagers rallied outside a school as passing motorists sounded their horns. Other students entered the building for lessons.
“We’re missing our lessons to give you one,” read a cardboard sign outside Turgot high school in the city’s 3rd arrondissement.
In Bordeaux, in southwestern France, some students went back to class while others continued protesting as riot police stood nearby.
Outside Gustave Eiffel high school, several protesters set off fireworks toward police, who responded intermittently with tear gas. The situation otherwise remained calm, AFP reporters said.
In Lille, in the north, masked demonstrators damaged bus shelters and set fire to dustbins while police fired tear gas toward the crowd.
The movement began on September 17 at a high school in Creteil, a suburb south of Paris, in support of teachers striking over staff shortages and a lack of resources.
It soon gathered momentum and spread across France, at times descending into vandalism, with bus shelters destroyed, school entrances set alight and clashes breaking out between protesters and security forces.
Education officials said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked since the protests began.
More than 5,000 people have been arrested, 85 percent of them minors.
Protesters have also accused police of using excessive force, prompting internal investigations into at least three alleged cases of police brutality.
Read more:
How a high school blockade movement spread across France
‘Parental responsibility’
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced a timetable on Sunday calling on local authorities to give priority to filling vacancies created by prolonged teacher absences and unfilled positions.
He also called a meeting with regional presidents on Tuesday to discuss renovating the country’s frequently run-down school buildings.
At the same time, the government is advancing legislation that would require people responsible for damaging public property to cover repair costs rather than leave taxpayers to pay the bill.
Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon defended the proposal.
“When you have 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds who, at 9 am, are burning bus shelters or — perhaps even more seriously — the high school where they study, that raises the question of parental responsibility,” she told the Europe1/CNews broadcaster.
Lecornu said the draft law could permit compensation payments to be reclaimed from family allowances and housing benefits, while maintaining a minimum income threshold.
Sophie Binet, head of France’s main CGT labour union, condemned what she described as a “populist announcement” that would “end up targeting the most vulnerable families”.
