French high-school protests intensify as students allege police brutality

Thousands of demonstrators continue to mass under heavy police surveillance in cities across France, as unions and teachers join high school students who for days have been demanding better conditions in protests punctuated by violent clashes.

Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings unable to cope with rising temperatures.

In the Paris suburb of Creteil, where the protests started last month, students have piled barriers outside the Saint-Exupery high school.

In the western city of Rennes, teacher Romain Dubourgn said he and other teachers were present to show support. 

While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have lit dustbin fires, destroyed bus shelters or clashed with riot police, who have responded with batons, tear gas and riot-control rounds.

The government says 215 students and 715 police officers have been injured since the start of the movement, with a 15-year-old losing a hand on Monday after, according to a police union source, he picked up a sting-ball grenade fired by riot officers.

By contrast, a witness told La Voix du Nord newspaper that the grenade landed on the teenager.

Local prosecutor Etienne Thieffry late Monday said he was not able to immediately determine "whether this teenager had actually picked up a grenade that exploded in his hand, or whether the grenade had landed on him".

Protests are also taking place in Marseille in the south, Nantes in the west and Lyon in the southeast.

Television images on Tuesday showed riot police with shields pushing back crowds who had formed a human chain and blocked a road by a school in eastern Paris.

Police have used tear gas and other means to try to control what the authorities have described as "urban violence".

But unions, rights groups and many of the children have accused the police of using disproportionate force.

A 16-year-old lost the use of his right eye last Wednesday during the blockade of Balzac High School in the central town of Tours.

His wounds are "compatible with the impact of a defensive bullet of the blast ball type", local prosecutor Catherine Sorita-Minard said.

The family has filed a legal complaint for "violence by a person with public authority", her office said.

The family of the boy, named Mael, has said in a statement that he had "absolutely no involvement, whether directly or indirectly, in any activist or political activity whatsoever".

'Protect high-school students'

The unrest erupted months before the 2027 election to choose a successor to centrist President Emmanuel Macron after his maximum two terms in office.

The government has sought to address the grievances, while accusing the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of being behind the movement.

Veteran LFI presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon has strongly supported the protests, while calling for non-violent methods. 

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's office has called for "peaceful" gatherings, calling for a return to "a structured, legal and democratic form of opposition".

The head of the CGT labor union Sophie Binet has said its members would be there to "protect high-school students".

Greens party leader Marine Tondelier has urged local officials and parents to wear white and "go and protect our children during demonstrations".

'Disproportionate police repression'

Several unions and rights groups have accused the police of using disproportionate force against the protesters.

The police have launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since the protests started, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said late Monday.

Since the start of the movement, 24 schools have been burned or ransacked, according to the education ministry.

More than 5,000 people, 87 percent of them minors, have been arrested.

Lecornu's office said 85 teaching staff have also been injured.