A teenager in northern France has lost a hand after picking up a police stun grenade, an incident that has deepened tensions as student demonstrations over the state of French education continue nationwide. In Paris, masked attackers targeted a high school and started a fire at its entrance.
The wave of school protests has been building since mid-September. Pupils are demanding more money for education, complaining about the poor condition of school buildings, oversized classes and teachers weighed down by too much work.
Monday’s injury happened in Lens, a city in the north of the country. The local prefect, François-Xavier Lauch, confirmed that the teenager had lost his hand, in remarks cited by Reuters. According to the regional daily „La Voix du Nord”, the 15-year-old had picked up a police stun grenade. An investigation into the event has been opened.
Fire at a Paris high school
In the south-east of the French capital, the Vauquelin high school suspended Monday’s lessons after masked perpetrators struck the building three times and set fire to the entrance area.
The assailants hammered on the front doors until the glass broke, then lit a fire at the entrance. Staff put out the flames before the fire brigade arrived. Firefighters who later came to the scene were themselves attacked with pyrotechnic mortars.
Around 100 pupils were evacuated from the building. The school’s head, Carole Zerbib, said the attacks were carried out by a group of roughly a dozen young people dressed in black and wearing masks. In her view, the group was very well organised and the assault had been prepared beforehand.
Blockades and a falling count of disrupted schools
Blockades were reported at the Academy of Fine Arts and at one of the faculties of a medical university in Paris. Elsewhere in the country, Monday’s high school protests were judged before noon to be calmer than those held the previous Friday.
In the Rhône department, whose main city is Lyon, the third-largest city in France, police reported incidents at 12 high schools. The education ministry said actions or disruptions of various kinds were recorded at 413 institutions in the morning – a lower figure than in previous days, with more than 500 such establishments on Friday morning and more than 600 on Thursday.
Pierre Moscovici, the former head of the French Court of Auditors, discussed the protests on Monday on Franceinfo radio and argued that the demands of the high schoolers were legitimate.
– This is not a movement of hooligans, these are young people who notice bad teaching conditions, burdensome hours, classrooms that are run down and have no teachers – said Pierre Moscovici.
He also conceded that clashes against public order forces were taking place, something he described as unacceptable.
Źródło: Polsat News, Fot. Polsat News
