France has suspended the use of stun grenades during student protests after a 15-year-old boy lost a hand in an incident involving police in the northern city of Lens earlier this week.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he had ordered the suspension until the circumstances surrounding Monday’s incident were “clarified”. Conflicting accounts have emerged over how the teenager was injured, reports BBC.
The decision came as student protests continued across the country, with more than 500 schools fully or partially closed on Wednesday. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is scheduled to address the school protests in an evening speech.
Education Minister Édouard Geffray told the National Assembly that 24 schools had been set on fire or vandalised so severely that they would remain closed for several weeks, affecting about 30,000 pupils.
Hundreds of thousands of people joined demonstrations across France on Tuesday, including in Paris, demanding better conditions in schools. Police used tear gas and water cannon in some cities. The Interior Ministry said 488 people were arrested and 43 security personnel were injured.
Nuñez told RTL radio that France’s police watchdog, the IGPN, had opened 18 investigations to determine whether officers used proportionate force during the demonstrations.
“There is a police action that raises questions for all of us within the Ministry of the Interior; it’s what happened in Lens,” he said, confirming that stun grenades would remain suspended until the facts were established.
The 15-year-old suffered the severe injury near Auguste Béhal High School. Authorities said he picked up an anti-encirclement grenade that then exploded, while protesting students claimed he was directly struck when an officer fired it.
According to the local prefect, police were confronted by a group of between 200 and 250 students who were throwing stones and fireworks. The weapon is classified as non-lethal but releases small rubber pellets when it detonates.
Nuñez said judicial investigations were standard whenever disproportionate use of force was suspected, stressing that the government’s responsibility was to protect high school students.
However, Jean-Paul Nascimento, national secretary of the UNSA police union, criticised the suspension, saying it appeared to have been driven by “emotion”. He warned that without the weapon, police might face more close-range confrontations and potentially more injuries.
Concerns over police tactics have also grown following another incident last week, when a 14-year-old was struck in the face by a tear gas grenade in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, north-west of Paris. His lawyer said the boy lost several teeth and suffered a fractured jaw. A police officer has been charged over the incident.
Separately, a 16-year-old sustained a serious hand injury outside a school in Strasbourg on Wednesday, reportedly while handling a mortar firework.
Prosecutors have also opened an attempted-murder investigation after a 17-year-old protester alleged that a police officer “held his head underwater” while trying to arrest him near a river in Belfort. French reports said the teenager himself had been charged with aggravated assault for allegedly attacking the officer.
The protests, which began in mid-September, have expanded from high school students to parents, university students and trade unions. Lecornu has condemned violence during the demonstrations, saying 215 students, 85 staff members and 715 police officers have been injured since the unrest began. More than 6,500 people have been stopped or arrested, according to the Interior Ministry.
President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency meeting with Lecornu and other senior ministers late Tuesday after nearly a quarter of France’s lycées were disrupted. Government figures put the number of protesters at more than 250,000, while student unions estimated the turnout at 450,000.
A fourth round of protests is planned for Thursday in Paris and other cities. Meanwhile, the prime minister has accused the radical-left France Unbowed (LFI) party of seeking to “sow chaos” ahead of the election to choose Macron’s successor in April.
LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is currently second in opinion polls behind Marine Le Pen of the hard-right National Rally. LFI national coordinator Manuel Bompard said it had taken several children suffering life-changing injuries for Nuñez to suspend the use of grenades against students.
Le Pen, meanwhile, accused Macron of consistently siding with police.
Ryad Rani, head of the USL high school union, urged the interior minister on Wednesday to calm police officers and exercise restraint.
