Teenager's hand blown off as French school protests enter third week

PARIS — A teenager's hand was blown off as high-school protesters clashed with riot police in northern France on Monday, a local official said, on the eve of a national demonstration by the pupils' union against underfunding, overcrowding and dilapidation.

The regional newspaper La Voix du Nord said the 15-year-old lost his hand and part of his lower arm after picking up a police dispersal grenade that detonated in the town of Lens as the wave of school protests entered its third week.

François-Xavier Lauch, prefect of Pas-de-Calais, declined to comment on the exact circumstances, saying some 200 to 250 protesters had been hurling objects at police.

Six months before an election to replace President Emmanuel Macron, his government and the far-right National Rally, led by presidential frontrunner Marine Le Pen, have accused hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) lawmakers and mayors of stoking the protests. The LFI denies the accusation.

Speaking after meeting with students in the northern Paris suburbs, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said participation in the protests had been declining in recent days.

The government would launch a platform for students to express their dissatisfaction and kick off an action plan for particular schools, he said.

French police accused of excessive force against pupils

Rights groups accuse police ​of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including batons, tear gas and flash-ball guns.

Among several investigations into police methods, authorities are examining the case of a 16-year-old who suffered an eye injury after police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of protesters, according to his ​friends. The Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegation of using excessive force.

The LFI, headed by presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, denies encouraging violence and accuses the government of politicizing the issue and neglecting pupils' interests.

France's Justice Ministry said 5,060 people have been arrested since the protests began, with 87% of them minors. More than 1,800 people are being prosecuted, including 1,483 minors, the ministry said, without specifying the crimes. It said 790 cases had been dismissed.

The protests have put more pressure on a government trying to narrow a budget deficit as investor concerns about state finances grow, briefly pushing the yield on France's 10-year bonds to a 24-year high over 5% last week and raising the likely cost of future borrowing.

The protests began in September in Paris, focusing on poor suburbs, before spreading nationwide. The government says they have been hijacked and morphed into urban violence.

"Our priority is to restore order," government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told CNews television.

Some 400 to 500 high schools were closed or partially closed ahead of Tuesday's nationwide protest.

Two dozen schools have been burned or ransacked, 78 teaching staff have been injured in the demonstrations and at least 190 students have been injured, Geffray said. He said the goal was for classes at affected schools to restart on Wednesday.

"We’re going to keep blocking until the government hears us," said Sami Karen, 18, who was demonstrating outside Charles de Foucauld high school in Paris. "As long as they don’t listen to us, we won’t stop this fight."

Students and police clash in Lille, Toulouse and Paris

On Monday, BFMTV showed images of police and students clashing in Lille in northern France, tear gas being used in Toulouse in the southwest, and a fire being lit as people tried to break into a school in central Paris.

Carole Zerbib, head of the vandalized Lycee Vauquelin in Paris, said it had been attacked by a "very determined" group wearing hoods and masks who had tried to break through the entrance door and then lit a fire, forcing the school to be evacuated and classes suspended.

"It was very violent and happened very quickly," she said, adding that she did not believe the attackers were from the school.

Since last Monday, 5,000 people, 85% of them teenagers, have been arrested and dozens injured. Teachers and members of the public have been attacked, while damage to property is estimated in the millions of euros.

Bregeon said the government would fast-track a bill on October 27 to make youngsters found to have damaged property, or their parents, financially liable.

Security officials fear that Tuesday's organized protests in central Paris in particular could bring further violence amid concerns that far-left and anarchist groups could try to take them over.

Sophie Binet, head of the CGT labour union, told TF1 television on Monday that her members would attend Tuesday's demonstrations to protect the students.

"We've been appalled by what we have seen over the past 10 days and by the unprecedented crackdown that the government has organized," she said. — Reuters

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